California County Bans SmartMeter Installations 494
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."
Re:My guess.... (Score:4, Interesting)
If by "they" you mean the energy corporations, you're right. County officials being among the easiest of all government officials to bribe, and usually the least expensive, I can't imagine that the 2010 version of Enron would miss such an opportunity.
And the unions ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Marin crosses the line.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Grow Ops in Marin? (Score:2, Interesting)
Awww, U jelly? When people stick together, they can keep from being pushed around. Maybe you like being pushed around, but I don't. Even so, union workers have lost jobs, and suffered reduced pay and hours, just like everyone else. Why blame the people who stood up for their meager middle class pay? Why not blame the greedy bastards at the top?
Re:Grow Ops in Marin? (Score:2, Interesting)
Read up on the broken windows fallacy, it's one of the first important lessons in economics.
If meter readers are still being (forcefully) employed by ordinances such as this, when automated alternatives are available, it's a bad thing. Increasing corporate tax gives more money to the government, which ideally goes straight back to the people in forms such as infrastructure projects, stimulus, and various basic services like healthcare (unfortunately a large part of it really just goes towards bombs and subsidies).
A meter reader employed by union clout and ordinances is the worst kind of government subsidy. It subsidizes something that contributes absolutely nothing to society because there is an automated alternative. If you want government supported jobs, push for jobs that actually do something like an infrastructure/research related job.
I'm not bashing on meter readers by the way, I was just using it as an example. I'm sure current smart readers have some flaws (like privacy) and have a ways to go.
Re:Grow Ops in Marin? (Score:5, Interesting)
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? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.