Central Maine Power is on a mission. Its Spanish parent
company, Iberdrola, wants to present Maine as a model for
its so-called “smart” meter rollouts in New York State and
elsewhere.
To succeed, CMP first has to squash the grassroots
resistance sprouting all over Maine as CMP customers develop
health problems, worry about being hacked, experience
appliance and computer malfunctions, and realize that state
governments around the country — including Maine — rolled
over for powerful power companies that are raking in federal
stimulus dough to pay for the meters.
The new meter on your house emits radio frequencies to
transmit your usage data to other meters and to repeater
devices, bouncing the data around until they reach a
collector unit, which bundles the data to relay to CMP. This
process saturates the area with CMP’s RF emissions.
Resistance to CMP’s mission began with a handful of brave,
hardy Mainers who have been laboring through the morass of
state legal requirements in order to get one question
answered: “are ‘smart’ meters endangering our health?”
You are scoffing, “if they weren’t safe, the state wouldn’t
allow CMP to install them.” Wrong! In July, the Maine
Supreme Court ruled in the case that the Maine Public
Utilities Commission hadn’t addressed the human safety of
the new meters.
The one that is already stuck onto the side of your house.
Maybe just outside your kids’ bedroom. Or a foot from where
the family sits to watch TV. The more CMP accounts in your
neighborhood, the more exposed you are to RF pollution, and
the more exposed your household data are. Because not only
can these meters make you ill, but they invade your privacy
and are susceptible to being hacked.
CMP allows customers to keep their electromechanical meters
but charges you $40 a pop, plus $12 every month to keep your
existing meter. Although this assures your privacy, opting
out doesn’t save you from the negative health affects of the
not-so-smart meters all around you. And while the PUC mulls
how to address the health question, CMP keeps right on
charging people who have opted out but are still being
saturated with not-so-smart meter RF.
CMP equates emissions from not-so-smart meters with those
from cell phones, cordless phones, and Wi-Fi. That argument
is deeply misleading on two points. First, you choose
whether to have a cell phone or Wi-Fi in your house, and you
alone decide when to turn it on and off. Not-so-smart meters
are on 24/7/365 — and you cannot turn them off.
The second widening hole in CMP’s argument is that there is
mounting alarm in scientific, medical, and public policy
communities about the health dangers to a society saturated
by emissions from — you guessed it — cell phones, Wi-Fi and
cordless phones. The American Academy of Environmental
Medicine and the Council of Europe are among those now
issuing strong advice to get Wi-Fi out of schools.
Where can you get more information and help? Unlike CMP, the
grassroots resistance to not-so-smart meters isn’t glossy or
well-funded. We don’t have a website or an 800 number.
What we do have is a cantankerous notion that we don’t want
manmade RF emissions bouncing around us and through us, up
to 15,400 times a day. We also have the temerity to believe
that the power company shouldn’t be collecting — and
possibly selling — usage data that include the brand and
model number of any electrical device we use in our homes,
and what time we use it.
And speaking of time, you don’t have much left.
Before we’re too far down this dangerous road to back out,
educate yourself now about the meters that invade your
privacy and might make you ill. Begin by reading the
American Academy of Environmental Medicine press release
that calls for “Immediate caution regarding ‘Smart Meter’
installation due to potentially harmful RF exposure.” Read
their list of medical conditions that can be exacerbated by
the meters. Read about emerging studies on the detrimental
health impacts of long-term exposure to an environment
saturated by manmade RF and EMF.
Call CMP and tell them that you want your electromechanical
meter back. Then call your mayor or select board members,
your state representative, your state senator, and your
Congresspeople to ask why the government is throwing money
at power companies to install meters that can make you ill
and that invade your privacy.
We may not be well-funded, but Mainers are scrappy. Don’t be
steamrolled by Big Brother and Big Business.
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