1) BC Hydro’s 2014-2015 financial report is available at:
https://www.bchydro.com/about/accountability_reports/financial_reports/annual_reports.html
If you’d like to see executives’ salaries (2014) , they are available at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160324185831/http://www.bchydro.com/content/dam/BCHydro/customer-portal/documents/corporate/accountability-reports/openness-accountability/f14-disclosure-signed-final.pdf
2) Below in Letters is a very interesting email I got from someone in the USA re. the smeter being “killed” by his HAM radio antenna. Worth becoming a HAM operator. Has anyone had a similar experience with ITRON?
3) In today’s papers, there were articles about many of the poor little marmots possibly not making it through winter. The captive breeding program is allowing little ones to be put back into the wild to enjoy life, but with a microwave transmitter emitting signals their entire lives. Nothing to suggest this is the reason for the die-off but we all know these devices cannot be helping them.
“Released marmots are implanted with transmitters that track their body temperature. If the marmot is alive and well, the transmitter pings quickly. During hibernation, the animals’ body temperature drops so low that it’s impossible to tell if they are still alive based on the pings, Taylor said. But as spring progresses, the pings typically come back.”
I had kept this article about microchipping dogs from some years ago. I don’t know if current technology has improved.
http://www.antichips.com/press-releases/chipped-pets.html
4) In Maryland, the promised benefits have not been realized and the costs keep going up, just like Ontario and everywhere else. The corporations are the only ones who benefit from this expensive, dangerous program.
“Weary, weary, oh so weary from the latest Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. rate hike just approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission to cover the cost of this Tsunami of a smart meter program (“State regulators agree to another BGE rate increase, though less than utility wanted,” June 3). BGE sought an outrageous increase, and the PSC came back with one that was just grossly unfair.
The original sales pitch back in 2010 was that these new meters would help customers significantly reduce energy consumption with great savings to all, and surely customers would then happily subsidize the program. But unfortunately, smart meters have failed miserably to live up to those claims.”
PSC wrong on BGE rate hike – When will the PSC get smart about BGE’s smart meter ripoff? – The Baltimore Sun – June 20, 2016:
– http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-smart-meters-letter-20160620-story.html
5) BC Hydro is forcing people to sell their land to BC Hydro for Site C. And they are doing it despite independent experts saying this project is not needed and will do harm to the environment. Note: like the smeter program, this is being done without oversight. BC Hydro and this government are using the legal tools, e.g. writing laws to bypass the regulatory agency responsible for oversight (BCUC) to get their corporate buddies’ plans through. Just as with Site C, the BCUC refused to approve the Smart Metering Program in 2008, saying the benefits don’t justify the costs and that the technology is too new to be reliable. So BC Hydro included the Smart Metering Program with Site C in the Clean Energy Act which excludes any oversight. This is a rogue government, working with a rogue monopoly. They are ruining our province, our environment and our health.
Chair of the panel that reviewed Site C believes this is a totally unnecessary project, and worse…
http://desmog.ca/2016/06/20/no-need-site-c-review-panel-chair-speaks-out-against-dam-new-video
Letters:
From: X
Sent: June 19, 2016
To: Patrick.wruck@bcuc.com
Cc: Douglas.Routley.MLA@leg.bc.ca; adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca; Sharon Noble; jessica.mcdonald@bchydro.com; cbcnewsvancouver@cbc.ca; bcauditor@bcauditor.com; customermetering@bchydro.com
Subject: Smart meters with radio off that do not seem to be turned off!
Patrick Wruck
Customer Service Specialist
British Columbia Utilities Commission
6th Floor, 900 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2N3
Dear Mr. Wruck,
I am deeply concerned about having a smart meter with the radio off less of a foot from our kitchen counter where our family prepare our meals every day. I have learned (BC Hydro customer letter attached) that those smart meters radios can be turned on at any time and tests conducted on some of them has revealed that they are still transmitting data even when BC Hydro said that they were turned off. I am concerned, because there are many scientific studies which have revealed that smart meter technology (electro-magnetic fields) can be harmful to us and other living beings, and some countries have banned or restricted Wi-Fi technology in schools and in everyday life. Below, I list a few of those studies and/or recommendations and rebuttals:
- On May 25, 2016, Microwave News announced that the highly respected US National Toxicology Program (NTP) had released the results of its 10-year $25-million study which showed that cell phone radiation boosts cancer rates (brain tumors) in animals.
- On May 11, 2015, 190 International EMF (electro-magnetic field) scientists from 39 countries (which has now grown to 220 scientists from 41 countries) have signed the “International EMF Scientists Appeal,” which was addressed, by name, to the Secretary General of the United Nations, to all UN-member countries, and to the Director General of the World Health Organization urging them all to “Protect mankind and wildlife from the dangers of EMF and wireless technology!”
- On January 29, 2015, France broke with the two international radiation regulatory agencies – who share essentially the same radiation Exposure Guidelines with Health Canada, i.e., the WHO (World Health Organization) and ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) – to establish its own radiation regulatory agency. In doing so, France immediately banned Wi-Fi in all nursery schools across the country and stated, in part, that for children up to 11 years of age, schools must turn off Wi-Fi when not in use!
- On Sept. 28, 2014, 55 Canadian doctors openly criticized Health Canada and called on them to: “Protect Canadians from electromagnetic radiation”!
- On July 9, 2014, 53 scientists from 18 countries openly criticized Safety Code 6 and urged Health Canada to intervene in order to: “Prevent an emerging health crisis”!
- On May 31, 2011, the WHO classified radio frequency EMFs a Class 2B (“Possible”) carcinogen.
- Many leading EMF scientists say that both EMR and EMF should be classified a “Probable” if not a “Definite” cause of cancer, i.e., Class 2A or Class 1!
- On May 27, 2011 the Council of Europe (47 countries, 800-million people) called on all European countries to significantly reduce their radiation exposure levels (in effect telling them to abandon ICNIRP’s ‘guidelines, which they had been following, which were essentially the same as those of WHO and Health Canada)! It urged ICNIRP itself to lower its radiation exposure ‘guidelines’ and adopt the ALARA principle, i.e., “As Low As is Reasonably Achievable”.
- Quebec-based magazine La Maison du 21e siecle asked physician David O. Carpenter, former founding dean of the University at Albany (NY)’s School of Public Health, to comment an open letter published in the Montreal daily Le Devoir on May 24 2012. This letter claimed wireless smart meters pose no risk to public health. More than 50 international experts endorsed a rebuttal, which can be read at:
As you can see, I have good reason to be concerned, and as a citizen I do not understand why our health authorities at all levels of government are not acting to protect our children and every citizen from EMF radiation.
Mr. Wruck, because of my concerns with the possibility of EMF radiation being so close to our bodies on a daily basis, and the scientific data available, we strongly believe that BC Hydro should make available an analog meter or a legacy digital meter to us.
Sincerely,
X
————————————————————————————-
“Evidently RADIO-OFF does not mean COMPLETELY RADIO OFF.
My immediate neighbour was one of the people who recently received an early letter saying they had to lose their analogue and get a Smart Meter. You will remember that the letter sent out by BC Hydro recently, stated that the Smart meter would come to them with the default of RADIO OFF, and people could tell if it was off by the display cycling to read “RF OPTOUT”.
My neighbour’s new Smeter cycles through to show that exact promised designation “RF OPTOUT”, and yet I have tested their meter several days after the installation with my high quality HFE 35C Analyzer, and their radio is NOT OFF!!! Their meter sends large bursts (maxing out my analyzer) 6 times in 3&1/2 minutes, and does so roughly on this sequence around the clock. I am creating a video of the event and will let you know when it is online.
I have confirmed with my neighbour that they were assured this was a full radio-off Smeter and the Corix installer even wrote “Rad Off” on the clear plastic cover! Perhaps it is a less frequent burst being broadcast than a regular smart meter, but it is by no means a weakened burst. Evidently RADIO-OFF does not mean COMPLETELY RADIO OFF. I am wondering how many more are this way. Very disconcerting!
I intend to raise the awareness on this nefarious finding and once online, will bring it to the attention of the BCUC.”
_______________________________________________________________________
In an email from someone in the USA:
This is just a little update concerning our Smart Meter that APS installed without our permission. As I thought would eventually happen, our unshielded smart meter once again became a “dumb dead smart meter”.
Yesterday I walked over to our carport and noticed that our Elster Smart Meter was dead as a door knob. I suspected that this would happen again, as is the case, lack of shielding and RF emissions works both ways, in this case, the unshielded smart meter became a victim of either a 2nd order, or third order harmonic transmission from my ham station which toasted the meters electronics.
These morons still haven’t figured out that 2 meter band (144 – 148 Mhz), or 440 Mhz band transmissions produce harmonics, and the meter is within perhaps 40 – 50 feet of my transmitting antenna(s) which produce an approximate 50 watt ERP saturation signal which overloads their unshielded meter’s electronics. Long ago I advised APS that there was a strong possibility that this would happen and included this information in a letter to the ACC, I also posted this information on my website, apparently they still don’t believe me.
When I noticed it was dead, approximately a week after it blew it’s brains out, I received a friendly call from APS advising me that they were going to replace my dead smart meter. This will be the the third replacement, obviously, they must have noticed that there was no usage data coming from my meter, I found this quite amusing and said nothing knowing that they will eventually be replacing it again in the future. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. My neighbor’s smart meter is still transmitting data but I don’t give much time before it goes up in smoke.
I have no intention of trying to convince APS that they need to shield these smart meters appropriately, all of my equipment is thoroughly shielded and type accepted, smart meters are not protected devices and not shielded, they need to just give up and install a simple analog meter and be done with it. Of course, they could install Faraday shields on smart meters to help shield them from RF emissions in or out, but who would absorb the cost, THE CUSTOMER.
What a boondoggle.
XX
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“Lyon, France, May 31, 2011 ‐‐ The WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use.”
~ World Health Organization