LPEA and Dan Harms enjoyed an unfair platform (Herald, Feb. 9) to tout alleged facts and baseless fears surrounding the smart meter – or AMI meter – controversy. Harms’ so-called facts are unabashed wireless-industry talking points, spoon-fed by utility companies to offset growing, national consumer opposition. For example, AMI meters transmit up to 190,000 network messages per day – not just the consumer messages transmitted “once or twice per hour,” as he alleges. Since he refers to the Internet, Google smart-meter lawsuits for cases argued and won in courts in Hawaii, Maine, California, Oregon and other states.
Baseless? The settlements say otherwise.
LPEA has a single purpose: Get smart meters installed, fast, before they’re stopped! Same for Atmos Energy! Harms was selective in his references, ignoring credible facts and science, to the contrary. Utility companies want to reduce operating costs by eliminating jobs and capturing usage data – leading to higher prices based on time and amount of energy consumed. Think cellular bills!
Manufacturers are installing AMI chips in new appliances to communicate with your smart meter. The long-term plan, subsidized by government, is to connect everyone to a national power grid, giving them the capability to monitor and control energy usage right to our home! Think NSA!
Harms, LPEA and the Herald ignore non-Internet empirical evidence from independent experts with credentials superior to theirs. Harms is an LPEA employee and has no choice. An ethical community newspaper does. Although not specific to smart meters, expert testimony on radiation standards before the FCC in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2013, rebuked numerous wireless industry claims regarding the impact of radio frequency exposure limits. The Herald chose to ignore this testimony and responded by commissioning an idiotic cartoon by Judith Reynolds and printing it right above an opposition letter.
By discrediting and discouraging opposition in such a cowardly manner, the Herald acts as an enforcer for the giant wireless communications and utilities industries. Go to http://ehtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/FCC.pdf and arrive at your own conclusions. Keep us out of Harms’ way!
Edmund Andersson
Durango
