1) Many of us have been responding to BC Hydro’s form letters with logic and reason, believing that the person at the end will have authority to make a decision and will care about our concerns. I don’t believe either is true. The people on the phone have one job – to get the $$meters on our homes. They have had little training, responding with talking points they have been given, whether they make sense or are true or not. Rather, I believe we need to address our questions and concerns to the higher levels, e.g. the MLAs, Bill Bennett, and Jessica McDonald, CEO of BC Hydro. Of course they all have their marching orders, too, so equally important are the media and our neighbours/friends, many of whom still have no idea of the dangers/problems associated with smeters. Here are some good questions that should be asked – many have been ignored in the past, or responded with incorrect, misleading responses.
2) An interesting thing today. Our power went out during a strong wind storm. After about 10 minutes, out of curiosity, I called BC Hydro’s outage centre to see if it had been reported. I was told the line was out of order — due to the storm perhaps? Wonder how all those $$mart things are reporting?
3) “Suicide of a pastor so electrohypersensitive that a salted bath was his only refuge against microwave emissions from wireless technologies: testimony by German Prof. of Medicine Franz Adlkofer, author of the REFLEX study which demonstrated the genotoxic effects of low microwave exposures well below international limits. A researcher tied industry was convicted of defamation for claiming the study was rigged :”
4) PLEASE READ AND SHARE: The Liberal governments, both Campbell’s and Clark’s, have treated BC Hydro irresponsibly, and we are left with a debt that is growing and a damaged environment. This is continuing. It must be stopped. The government has put through “Orders in Council” which allows accounting methods that basically allows overrides in budgets that are hidden from the public – and the BC Utilities Commission is not allowed to do its job to protect our interests.
“Electricity exports from BC trade mainly through the “Mid-Columbia” (Mid-C) price hub. The Mid-C average through 2015 was $26.06 per MWh, and for the first six weeks in 2016 has been $22.73. It’s not a winning business proposition when the power BC Hydro is selling costs $79.54 per MWh….
At times in recent years, spot prices have dropped below zero, into “negative pricing,” in which a seller of energy will deliver power to the customer, and pay him to take it. This situation will occur when demand (and prices) are low, and a seller of power cannot or will not curtail generation. It will also occur when a seller of power, BC Hydro in this instance, has “take or pay” agreements with IPPs, which require it to pay the IPP the agreed-upon rate for electricity whether or not it takes delivery of the power. BC Hydro does find itself with more energy than it has demand for.” So no justification for Site C!!
“The Liberal government set BC Hydro on more than a decade of spending beyond its means, entering electricity purchase agreements it couldn’t pay for, and being unable to obtain the revenues it needed to meet its spending obligations. It was only following orders. A private company would have been bankrupt, and have liquidated its assets. Crown corporations have taxpayers to keep them afloat.”
5) Dr. Oz had what I think is a repeat on his Friday show, but it’s great that people are being given a second chance to learn about cell phones and microwave radiation:
6) Risks of full body scanners at airports have been known since the inception of the program. Microwave radiation is microwave radiation whether from a cell or cordless phone, a Wi-Fi modem or a smeter.
Castilla writes that TSOs “consistently complain to me [as I am sure they are complaining to TSA] about their concern over the growing number of TSOs working here that have been diagnosed as having cancer and of their concerns that TSA’s utilized technology may be to be blame.”
Castilla notes that while some of those with cancer are no longer working at the airport, “….BOS still has an alarmingly high number of cancer afflicted TSOs still working here or out while trying to address the illness.”
A very telling part of the email is Castilla’s reference to this not being a new issue. “Despite TSA management’s past assurances, many TSOs here do not feel safe from radiation threats that may go hand in hand with using x-ray screening technology, especially the newer [installed since TSA federalized airport security] technology that has been lesser used in our country than much older but also feared Rapiscan machines.”
Letters:
March 7, 2016
Mr. Daren Sanders
Senior Manager, Customer Service Operations
B.C. Hydro
Re: Your letter of March 1, 2016
Legacy meter exchange
Dear Mr. Sanders,
We received your letter dated March 1, 2016 stating that our analog meter needs to be removed from service because the Measurement Canada certification will soon expire. Your letter also states that by default a radio-off meter will be installed in exchange for the current analog meter.
Please be advised that we do not accept the radio-off meter nor a smart meter in exchange for our analog meter.
We will only accept another analog meter.
We will only accept another analog meter.
See points 10 and after for the detailed reasons for our refusal.
Please note the following:
1. We made the choice to keep our analog meter at the beginning of the smart meter program and we have been paying the additional “legacy” fee ever since therefore we are entitled to keep having an analog meter in our house as per the Energy Minister’s statement.
2. Since you made the statement that the meter will expire “soon”, please provide the specific information as to when exactly our meter will expire.
3. If our meter does need to be exchanged this year, we only accept another analog meter with a new expiration date set at 20-25 years like our current one, not expiring “next year”!. You state in your letter that BC Hydro no longer has a stock of legacy analog meters. However, we have been informed through reliable sources that very recently, even within the last couple of weeks, other BC customers have had an exchange made with another analog meter. If it’s true that no analog meters are available locally, BC Hydro can get them from some other jurisdictions as we know they ARE available. If an analog meter is not available immediately, you can reserve one and we can wait until that time.
4. Radio-off meters can be easily switched to a smart meter when we are not looking, even remotely.
5. Also, there are well documented problems with the lithium batteries exploding and causing fires. Therefore, a radio-off meter is not an acceptable option and we will only accept another analog meter.
6. In order to provide access to the meter base we must be present and remove the obstacles for a clear path for the installer. Therefore, we request an appointment so we know when the installer will show up.
7. Also, we request to be notified in advance when the installer will come to have the exchange done as we require the power in our home to be turned off at the breaker inside the house prior to the meter being exchanged. Please be aware that should the installation occur without disconnection it will constitute an acceptance on the part of BC Hydro to replace all damaged equipment and other electrical items in our house. No excuses such as that it was the fault of our own “faulty” base will be acceptable.
8. You cannot charge us a “failed installation fee” of $65.00 as the worker will have unrestricted access to the meter at the set date and time if the meter does need to be replaced as you state in your letter. However, again, we will only accept another analog meter.
9. We insist that the meter exchange be done by a fully qualified BC Hydro installer with photo ID.
10. We are concerned about the safety of the digital and smart meters, specifically the increased risk of fire potentially due to moisture on the lithium metal battery. It is a known fact that these meters have caused many fires in BC, Saskatchewan, Ontario, the United States and elsewhere. Proper independent investigation needs to be carried out which should have been done first and not after the fact.
11. Analog meters are accurate – on the contrary, smart meters have shown to be unreliable to a large degree and susceptible to hackers and therefore a huge waste of money for the province.
Last but not least, health concerns dictate that only an analog meter can be installed at our premises. My wife and I cannot tolerate any additional unnecessary electromagnetic fields and/or microwave radiation. My wife has already spent 10 years of her life in bed and in a wheelchair with a condition involving inflammation of the brain and immune system problems. The interference and health effects of such fields on the human body have been widely demonstrated in thousands of double-blind peer-reviewed studies by renowned international scientists all over the world. We have researched the subject for years and can provide you with a long list of references (approx. 6,000). As a retired scientist, this is a non arguable statement.
The Provincial Government, through its Energy Minister, clearly said at the beginning of the smart meter program that “BC Hydro will not install a new meter without the homeowner’s consent”.
We are therefore requesting that we be contacted on the phone and an appointment be made for the meter exchange after you have proved to us that the certification is in fact expiring and the meter needs to be replaced.
Thank you
X
___________________________________________________________________________
From: XX
Sent: March 13, 2016
Subject: BC Hydro’s proposed changes
I want to express my concern about the process of effecting change itself. Hydro has tried to amend the Tariff in ways beyond that applicable to the RDA application itself. Many of the amendments Hydro is trying to push through could have significant ramifications for its customers. And it is well-hidden in the submitted documents. Any major change like this is supposed to be done as a separate application to BCUC, and the public is supposed to be given an opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns, as interveners and otherwise.
Please do not allow Hydro to make these changes in this way and without public notification.
Thank you.
Best wishes,
XX
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.”
~ Czeslaw Milosz