Ed Friedman doesn't mind the tinfoil-hat jokes. Just don't
install a smart meter on his house.
From his home in Bowdoinham, Maine, the helicopter pilot and
environmental activist is leading opposition to digital
electrical meters being installed by the local utility,
Central Maine Power. The new devices, which use wireless
radios to transmit data about electricity consumption, are
touted as a critical component of a more intelligent
electrical grid. With smart meters, consumers could track
the price of electricity in real time, and utilities could
lay off tens of thousands of meter readers.
Friedman, who carries a radio-frequency analyzer that emits
frightening crackles around cell phones and Wi-Fi routers,
says smart meters are a dangerous idea. They are an invasion
of privacy and might even cause illness, he has alleged in a
legal complaint set to be heard by the Maine Supreme Court
next month.
"My home is my castle," says Friedman. "And they want to
receive and transmit from it without asking permission."
Central Maine Power began installing the
digital meters last year and has now put them on around
610,000 homes and businesses, including most residences in
Maine. Spurred by several billion dollars in smart-grid
incentives passed as part of the 2009 economic recovery act,
utilities across the United States are quickly moving ahead
with similar plans.
But the sudden appearance of the technology has sparked a
national opposition movement, and poor communication by the
utilities has not helped matters. In 2010, county officials
in Marin County, a liberal bastion in California, voted to
block the meters over health concerns. In Texas, Tea Party
activists and militia members are now opposing smart meters
and calling them Big Brother–type spying.
"This movement has brought together really strange
bedfellows," says Josh Hart, who helps organize smart-meter
opponents from his website, Stopsmartmeters.org .
Hart got involved after his girlfriend became worried about
the health effects of radio waves from the meter's
transmitter. "I called the company. I said we didn't want
one. And they said 'You don't have a choice.' That got my
back up," he says. A onetime computer enthusiast, he has now
gotten rid of his microwave, cell phone, and home Internet
router. "In this country, we have no choices about
technology," he says.
The
intensity of the opposition has caught utilities
flat-footed. "It was stunning to us when we ran into the
response that we got. We did not see it coming," says John
Carroll, a spokesman for Central Maine Power. Customers
worried that smart meters could start fires, interfere with
medical devices, or even cause cancer.
Try any
Q-Link or
cell chip
for 3 months, absolutely
RISK-FREE If you do not feel Q-Link improves your
focus, energy, or well-being, simply return it for a full
refund.
Airtube headsets have
30 a day refund.
