California County Bans SmartMeter Installations

kiwimate writes "Marin County in California has passed an ordinance (PDF) banning the installation of smart meters in unincorporated Marin. Among the reasons given are privacy concerns associated with measuring energy usage data moment by moment and the potential for adverse impact on emergency communication systems used by first responders and amateur radio operators. The ordinance also comments that 'the SmartMeters program ... could well actually increase total electricity consumption and therefore the carbon footprint,' citing 'some engineers and energy conservation experts.'" The ordinance also mentions "significant health questions" raised about "increased electromagnetic frequently radiation (EMF) emitted by the wireless technology in SmartMeters."

Comments

Grow Ops in Marin?

[spun]

Could be the real reason for those privacy concerns, and more power to them.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[PopeRatzo]

.One of the more prevalent issues is union labor pushing to keep meter-readers in business.

You got a problem with that?

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[spun]

You think the unions want to keep meter readers in business? It wouldn't be unprecedented, we still have fire-tenders on electric trains. But I'd like to see some evidence. There is a very, very strong push by business interests to smear unions going on right now.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[Yohahn]

Actually there are generally not many low-skilled jobs out there.. they slowly dissappear.
There was a research project in the 90's called "The midwest Job Gap". It's basic conclusion was there were 2-4 low-skill workers (for various reasons, these people aren't going to learn their way up to high skill jobs) for every 1 low skill job.

Here's an old reference to it: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4404804.html

The premise that there is enough work to go around for low skill workers is generally false.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[PopeRatzo]

When there is technology to eliminate wasteful use of human and other resources

Seeing jobs for people as a "wasteful use of human resources" is one of the symptoms of why the rise of transnational corporations is destroying so many societies. Why is the corporate profit motive never questioned, but the motive to provide for one's family and oneself is discounted?

What do you say we don't start thinking in those terms until we've gotten to the point where everyone has sufficient food, shelter, clothing and education?

A company should not be forced to support hundreds of workers it doesn't need

Why not? If a company is going to profit from operating within a society, why shouldn't it be expected to support that society? If a company registers a patent in the US, then places it in a subsidiary in Holland, then a subsidiary in Ireland, and then back to Holland, finally licensing it back to itself to the US subsidiary in order to avoid paying taxes in the country that it sells the product, why shouldn't it be "forced" to contribute to the well-being of the people who comprise that market?

I think we underestimate the danger of believing that profit without responsibility is OK. More than thirty percent of the wealth of the bottom 75% of Americans just evaporated from 2000 to 2008 during a time when the largest corporations profits grew. Can you figure out where that trend heads?

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[afidel]

As someone who had to work with the uaw idiots as a non-union outside contractor let me tell you that most of the characterization of the union is an understatement. I had to come back to one plant 4 times before I could get a union electrician to come watch me install a couple racks of equipment because nothing could be plugged into an electric outlet without an electrician present. Then when we finally did get things plugged in the UPS's refused to run because the power was so messed up. He said yeah we know that transformer is messed up, and walked away. So a half million in equipment is afaik still sitting unpowered in racks in that data room because the electrician who couldn't be bothered to meet me for 4 scheduled appointments also couldn't be bothered to fix the power in the building.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[icebike]

[citation needed]

The fact that people with smart meters continue to get TV, FM Radio, short wave, police and ambulance radios, and garage doors open just fine, with no interference and no problems would SEEM TO SUGGEST you have no clue about what you are speaking.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[spun]

Within the last 40 years, nearly all the gains in productivity have gone to the top 1%. The middle class has barely broken even. The poor have gotten poorer. I doubt the top 1% are actually responsible for those productivity gains, in fact I'm pretty sure the rest of us did the lion's share of the work. But we got shafted instead of getting rich, with a tiny minority harvesting all the fruits of our labors.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[PopeRatzo]

And if my electricity costs were lower, I could afford to hire someone to clean my house.

But in the experience of the past few decades, greater efficiency and profit has not led to cost savings for consumers.

At some point, when you put enough people out of work, you no longer have consumers who can afford your product. Henry Ford figured that out, but the current perked and golden-parachuted captains of industry seem to have forgotten it. But they figure that if American consumers can no longer afford their products, then there are billions of Chinese and Indians who can, especially if they're given sufficient credit. And long before those markets are played out they'll have earned half a billion dollars so why give a fuck?

See, short-term thinking is standard in business today. You worry about your quarterly profits, your stock price and that's it. Very few companies look five or ten years down the road, because the CEOs are only worried about their bonuses and the Boards of Directors are all golf buddies of the CEO and they're all going continue to get rich no matter what happens to the company.

How common is it to hear of a CEO being let go after driving a company into the dirt and walking away with a fat severance package that was approved by the board? I forget his name, but there was a flabbergasting story a few years ago about the CEO of a major home improvement chain who lost fifty percent of the company's capitalization and left with an eight-figure going away package.

Corporate consolidation guarantees that the people at the top of corporations are not part of the communities in which they do business. This has created a disconnect that has had disastrous effect.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[Phoobarnvaz]

Radiation fear mongers are the same ones that want to shut down your wifi. The meter is on the outside of the house, any radiation they produce is no more than your neighbors wifi, which is on 24/7.

Was in commercial radio for about 20 years...part of that time in the engineering end and am also a Ham Radio operator. Spooking people with stories of a big source WiFi radiation outside their home is as rooted in truth as telling kids they'll grow hair in their palms or go blind from masturbation.

I used to accompany our head engineer to the transmitter on a mountain top location. The transmitter was running at 100,000 W...hence away from every/anybody. The first time I ever visited the site...I walked into the room which had the lights on what looked like a dimmer turned 1/2 way up...but the switch was in the "off" position. Turned on the lights to full power. Then we used the "Jesus Pole" after this to ground off any stray current...we cleaned the cabinet out and tweaked the final.

As for Ham Radio use...I put any antenna up as high/far away from anyone to keep RF away from where people are to keep them from bitching when I transmit and their TV goes crazy.

Re:Grow Ops in Marin?

[jwhitener]

The middle class have more "things" to keep them happy, sure. But it generally requires two people working full time to have that home, car or 2, and all the comforts that we believe we need (cable tv, etc..). In 1950, it was 1 full time worker for that home, car, etc..

But I would guess that the post you replied to is mostly looking at income inequality.
Graph of income

1970 until now, the middle class really hasn't had a pay increase, when adjusted by inflation. The middle has stayed middle, (or slightly gone below historic middle depending on how you view the data). The rich, on the other hand, have gotten progressively more rich in comparison.

Wealth really is concentrating at the top. Just because you have enough gadgets to keep you happy doesn't necessarily mean you are receiving a fair slice of societies pie.

It is pretty interesting looking at income inequality and economic depressions. Look how similar income distribution was right before the great depression and right before our current depression historic graph

Marin crosses the line....

[Simonetta]

Marin crosses the line in legislating psuedo-science into an active ordinance. I hear the anti_smart-meter people present their case on KBOO (www.kboo.fm) radio, the world-class alternative radio station out of southeast Portland Oregon USA. They're well-intentioned and enthusiastic, but they really seem a little touched with the ol'hippy paranoia 'all science is evil' herb-induced vibe.

    Marin is a strange place. I've visited there many times and it seems normal and well-ordered, but it has a true bizarre historical undercurrent that goes back a hundred years (even before all the rich hippies moved there in the 1970s). It's =almost= the kind of place that would pass a law forcing the sun to rise in the West in order to get a great morning sunrise for the folks living in Stinson Beach. It is exactly the kind of place that people would ban a technology that they don't quite understand and doesn't appear to do anything to make them younger and more beautiful and more hip (and more rich). They are exactly the kind of people who would consider a piece of equipment from the power company ('a rather déclassé institution run by drab ordinary pedestrian types, not-our-sort-of-globally-aware-organic-people', dahrling) that emits radio signals from their home-lifespace to be an evil intrusion. If it's not spying on you for the Republicans, then it's trying to keep track of how much electricity is being diverted from your hot tub to the grow lights in your secret garden.

    Marin has probably changed a lot since "The Serial" was published in the late 1970s, but it's the kind of place where the people pay a lot of money and a lot of karmic energy to make sure that it doesn't change all that much. Still they have crossed the line on this one issue.

    Personally, I'd love to live in Marin. The MILFs are as gorgeous as the models. It's the 'coolest' place on earth. The grass is greener and everything's always groovy, no matter how stupid and ugly the rest of the world becomes. But I'm a little too ugly and a little to poor to be accepted as one of the 'golden cloud people' north of the Golden Gate.

Two SmartGrid dirty secrets

[Anonymous Coward]

One. Advertised: if the utility company is having trouble delivering the demanded power, they can reduce the voltage a little bit and buy/generate a little bit less (expensive) peak power. Your lights will burn a little less brightly, but you probably won't notice.Not advertised: if the utility company is having trouble making money or needs a place to sink their spinning reserves during off-peak demand, they can use SG to raise the delivered voltage to end customers. Your lights will burn a little brighter, but you probably won't notice. It will also cost you a little bit more. Too bad.

Two. Advertised: through price signals and load shedding, the utility can reduce the peak-to-trough difference in electricity demand, lowering the cost of delivering electric power and passing the savings on to you. Not advertised: the utility can replace fast-response generators like natural gas with slower response generators like coal, because they don't need as much fast response generation capacity to deal with their now smaller peaks. Of course, coal has a bigger carbon footprint than gas. Too bad.