Smart Meter Talk May 22

Upcoming Talks on Smart Meters
What Is DTE Not Telling You?
Learn All You Need to Know
Network with Others

  Linda Kurtz, head of the Smart Meter Education Network, will give two talks on smart meters. These talks have been very well-received in the past. They provide you with an opportunity to learn more, ask questions, and network with others in the movement. Please attend. We have space for 120 people at each talk.
 

May 22 Talk

When: Sunday, May 22 from 2–5 p.m.
Where: Hadley Township Hall, 4293 Pratt Rd, Hadley, Lapeer County, MI  48440
 

June 12 Talk

When: Sunday, June 12 from 2–5 p.m.
Where: Hadley Old Town Hall, 3551 Hadley Rd, Hadley, Lapeer County, MI 48440
 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please leave your cell phone and any other wireless devices (including iPads, Apple watches, FitBits, etc) in your car. Some attendees, as well as the speaker, are extremely electrosensitive and cannot tolerate wireless frequencies of any kind. Thank you for your consideration.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: Please try not wear perfumes, essential oils, or strongly scented fabric softeners to the talk, as some people, including the speaker, are also chemically sensitive. Many people with EMF sensitivities become chemically sensitive.
 

PASS OUT FLYERS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND CITY
 

Here is the flyer announcing the two talks.  Here is a link to our revised Ticking Time Bomb flyer, which gives people lots of information about smart meters. Pass the two out together. It really makes a difference! View all our flyers and choose the ones that suits you. The new Ticking Time Bomb flyer is not on the website yet.

Church Accommodates EMF-Senstive Woman

A church council in Finland has spent $4,500 to protect 45-year-old organist Christina Funch Mellgren against electromagnetic radiation from wireless technologies. Christina stated, "When I sat in church, I had blurred vision, so I could not read the notes. No one could figure out what was wrong... I got a sore head, and my hands shook..." She also suffered extreme fatigue and heart rhythm disturbances. Christina's employer, Parish Council Chairman Alice Top-Rasmussen stated, "We try to help our organist. I am of the opinion that you should not just fire people who are sick."

Publicity of this has garnered the typical irreverent remarks, but only from the ignorant and malevolent. Luckily, the EHS Association helped. The walls of her home were painted with a specialty paint [likely Y-Shield] which protects against wireless radiation, and all electrical devices were wired so as to not produce further radiation. It also means the congregation must turn off their mobile phones or put them on airplane mode while in church. Predictably, some church-goes have left this congregation.

 

See the story at www.bt.dk/fraas-i-kirken/organists-soelvpapirshat-forargede-danskerne-nu-taler-el-overfoelsomme-chri.

Lapeer County Supports Analog Meter Choice

The Lapeer County Board of Commissioners has come out for analog meter choice and Michigan House Bill 4916. The Lapeer County Press did a great story on the resolution. 

Please write your commissioners expressing your thanks. I’d suggest asking them to amend the resolution so that it states that people should be able to have an analog meter on their home. The current resolution discusses only a non-transmitting meter (DTE’s current opt-out meter). DTE’s so-called opt-out meter is a non-transmitting meter.  The Commission is behind us. They forwarded the resolution to the Michigan Public Service Commission’s time-of-use rate comment section. Here is the contact info for the commissioners.

HEART-WRENCHING TESTIMONY

We strongly recommend that you listen to the heart-wrenching testimony Sheri White gave at the Lapeer County Commission meeting. Sheri is an electrosensitive woman whose life is being devastated. Her situation is very similar to mine.Her testimony starts at 8:17 and is about 2 minutes long. Also listen to the testimony of Elaine Gruska, who talks about how the smart meters have affected her elderly mother and her grandson, starting at 21:47. Everyone's testimony runs from 8:17 to 23:29.

Brown City Passes Resolution Regarding Smart Meters

Brown City in Lapeer County, Michigan, recently passed a resolution recommending that the Michigan Public Service Commission analyze the health risks around smart meters. Unfortunately, the MPSC already feels it has done that in U-17000. Brown City simply followed a now-outdated Shelby Township resolution.

The Brown City Banner published an excellent article on the smart meters on April 18, 2016.

Best Anti-Smart Meter Resolution to Date Passed by Marathon Township, Lapeer County

Marathon Township just passed one of the best resolutions against smart meters we have seen to date. It pulls no punches. Its language includes a statement that many customers “are concerned that emissions from smart meters may be attributed [sic] to serious health problems including but not limited to physiological, neurological, pulmonary, vascular, and sensory.” It also states that township board members are concerned about privacy intrusions.  Marathon Township is in Lapeer County.

See SmartMeterEducationNetwork.com for more information on smart meters in Michigan.

$50K Consumers' Bill Is Why We Need Smart Meters, Says Customer

Chris Boden, president of the Geek Group, says Consumers Energy estimated his nonprofit's electricity

usage for 18 months, then hit the nonprofit with a $50,000 electric bill. Boden says this is why we need smart meters--no more estimated bills. ""Smart meters are a good thing," he said.  "It's scary because it's different, it's scary because it's change.  And they are look 'ooooo' they are going to know what we are doing.  No, they are going to know that they are using a little bit mroe electricity at 7 a.m. than you were at 6 o'clock."

Look at this rash of TV stories on Consumers overcharging customers because of estimated reads on analogs. Why were there no stories on this a year ago, 2 years ago, 5 years ago? Why has Consumers Energy only been failing to make manual meter reads over the last year to year-and-a-half? We can bet they planned it this way--partway into smart-meter installation across their territory, they now come out with a "great" reasons about why you should get a smart meter.

http://fox17online.com/2016/04/22/grand-rapids-non-profit-hit-with-50000-consumers-energy-bill/

Michigan Case Involving Smart Meters Scheduled for May 11, 2016

May 11th, 2016: ATTENDANCE AND SUPPORT ARE NEEDED

Homeowners association attempts to force woman out of her home.

Georgetta's rash, from Mlive photo gallery.

Oak Valley Homeowners v Georgetta Livingstone, motion hearing Wednesday May 11, 2016 at Oakland County Court at 8:30 a.m. The motion hearing might start at 8:30 or it could start much later. Dockets usually set all cases for the same time, then cases are called up individually by the judge. So her case could start at 8:30 later in the day.

Georgetta Livingstone, a Ph.D. mechanical engineer now in her eighties, became extremely ill after DTE installed a smart meter on her home in 2011, suffering tremendously with terrible, debilitating rashes, headaches, anxiety, depression, sharp pains in her body, and insomnia. You can see a picture of the rashes in this MLive story. When Georgetta told DTE what was happening, they were unresponsive. She then purchased an analog meter and had a professional install it on her home. DTE then cut off Georgetta’s power. Everything in Georgetta’s home requires electricity; it is needed even for flushing toilets and for water. An article in the Daily Tribune states: “After her power was cut, she was reduced to ‘primitive life,’ she said, having to use the restroom at a nearby Kroger and take showers at a neighbor’s home.”

She has spoken to the Michigan House Oversight Committee, to House Energy Committee Chair Aric Nesbitt (who told her he was more concerned about the privacy issues surrounding smart meters than any health concerns), and many others. She has been ignored.

Then, her neighbors complained about noise from the generator she was using and her use of solar power and wind turbines. Her homeowner’s association has issued large fines and has now taken her to court. They would ultimately like to take her home away. This is similar to a case regarding chemical sensitivities that was litigated last year in Ann Arbor. Those who cannot tolerate the mass of pollution we now are living in are treated as pariahs! Please come to the court hearing. A strong showing will show the judge and the press (if they are there) that people with environmental sensitivities need to be accommodated, just as we accommodate those with physical and mental disabilities.

Please note that wind power, generators, and solar power are not safe and generate dirty electricity. It would seem that for Georgetta, she is most sensitive to the smart meter frequencies that ran through her home wiring and that she may also have had the RF from the meters riding on her wiring.

Here is the link to the court filings in this case, Oak Valley Homeowners v Georgetta Livingstone.

Links to Georgetta’s story:

·        Georgetta’s statement to the Michigan House (English is not her first language)

·        Photos of Georgetta’s rash, printed in MLive and Ann Arbor News

·        Mlive article

·        Lansing State Journal

Daily Tribune

ACT NOW! Prelude to Mandatory Smart Meters Happening Now

Imperative that you write in. You can make comments until the docket is closed.

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), with the complicity of the electric companies, is trying to shove mandatory time-of-use rates down our throats. This will likely mean MANDATORY SMART METERS in our near future!

Time-of-use (peak pricing) programs can't take place without smart meters. So, if you don't want smart meters, you need to take action, or they will become mandatory! Peak pricing means you pay more for electricity a the times of day people use it most.

DTE’s own website shows they will charge 300% more for peak power than off-peak. If you don't want astronomical bills for using power when you need--i.e., at normal times of the day--then you have got to submit a comment!

Submit your comment to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). Public comments matter. Public comments can be used in court cases. They can show the legislators where public sentiment really is.

If you don’t comment, you are complicit in allowing smart meters to overtake our lives. Commenting will take 5 minutes of your time. I need to know that I did not waste my time by preparing this information for you all (it took me 4 1/2  hours to prepare this information). Please send comments in.

First, I give you some background below. Following that are sample comments you can send in, or you can write your own comments. At a minimum, write the MPSC and say  you don’t want the demand-response program.

  Write Now!

What the MPSC Is Trying to Force Down Our Throats

Turning off your appliances at will

Forcing you to use electricity at certain hours or
pay up to 10 times as much as normal

Force customers without a smart meter to pay up to 300% more than customers with a smart meter

Everyone will be charged more for using electricity, unless you use it in the wee hours of the night. Time-of-use programs are also known as peak pricing and demand-response programs. Time-of-use means you will be charged more for using electricity at thee times of day you need it most (unless you are someone who does all your food preparation, laundry, TV-watching, and computer work in the middle of of the night).

Voluntary--for a while. Time-of-use programs start off as voluntary. It's the old "slippery slope" phenomenon.  In the beginning, discounts are given to those who voluntarily participate in the program. We all know where the smart meter agenda is leading--to extensive and coercive control over what you use and when you use it. What was once voluntary--giving candy to the child--becomes coerced.

Automatic appliance shut-off. When you participate in the program, you allow the utility to turn-off appliances or throttle-down your usage at peak times (times when demand for electricity is greatest, such as in the morning and in the evening)

 

Mandatory  Smart Meters

Without a smart meter that can tell when you are using electricity and controls your smart-chipped appliances and , peak pricing and demand-response won't work.

“The reason we’re putting these [smart] meters in is to be able to bill the time-of-use rates that are going to be mandatory.” Cleveland Utilities.

 

Mandatory Higher Bills

“The reason we’re putting these [smart] meters in is to be able to bill
the time-of-use rates that
are going to be mandatory.” Cleveland Utilities.  

If you don’t participate in time-of-use rates, you will be forced to pay more for electricity. If you look at our Costs page, you will see lots of information on how time-of-use rates and smart meters astronomically raise electric bills.  If you don't participate, allowing them to shut off appliances, etc. then your daily rates will be the peak rate all day long--because they can't tell when you are using electricity. Peak power rates, according to DTE's website, are worth 300% more than normal rates.

Wherever mandatory time-of-day pricing is implemented, rates go way up. Apolitical About.com has a chilling article on what is to come. This article is well worth reading. Here’s an excerpt: “For those who cannot function in the wee hours of the morning or late at night, consider dividing your wash into loads and run your washer and dryer for one load every evening, as soon as the off-peak time slot begins. If the cycle is too long and you're an early-to-bed type of person, use a shorter cycle and consider hanging the wash to dry.”

Here are a just a few examples of time-of-use rates:

• On-peak rates 3 times off-peak rates (22 cents/kWh vs 7 cents/kWh) (parts of Texas)
• Peak rates up to 10 times off-peak rates (parts of Texas)
• Electric rates 15% higher between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. (Washington)
• Electric rates doubled between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. (Ontario)

Discriminatory Impact

• Home businesses
• Elderly and retired
• Chronically ill
• Families with small children who are not in day care

This pricing scheme is discriminatory against anyone who must be at home utilizing electricity at peak demand times, including people with home businesses, the elderly, and the chronically ill.

Who to Write to

Email: mpscedockets@michigan.gov

In the subject line of your email you must put:    U-17936, U-18013
(these numbers let the MPSC know what case you are commenting on)

Let us know you wrote or will write. Click here to let us know.

Sample Statements

Note: It is best if you alter the wording of the samples so that the MPSC sees individuals thinking about this and writing in. I suggest that you take an item or two from the info above and work it into your statement. But, better to simply copy and paste then to write nothing at all. Pick any or all of the following points.

I oppose the implementation of demand-response electricity programs in Michigan.

Time-of-use programs discriminate against people who must be at home during peak hours. This includes the elderly and the chronically ill. It also includes people with home businesses, of which there are an increasing number in Michigan.

Time-of-use programs will discriminate agains people with electro-hypersensitivity. These people cannot use smart-chipped appliances.

The demand-response programs will discriminate against people with low incomes. They cannot afford to buy appliances that they can set to run at any time of the day or night.

The demand-response programs put additional load on the servers used to run the computer networks of the utilities. “Most data centers . . . consume vast amounts of energy in an incongruously wasteful manner . . . . Online companies typically run their facilities at maximum capacity around the clock, whatever the demand. As a result, data centers can waste 90 percent or more of the electricity they pull off the grid.” Here is the place to start on reducing consumption. There are many others out there.” From a New York Times article.

If you want people to save energy, educate them on using less.

I am [elderly / chronically ill /must go to bed early] and will be forced to run my appliances mainly at peak times. I can’t afford this. Even if I could, it’s not fair.

Since when is it the utility’s business to turn off my appliances when they want to?

See what others have written at this link: http://efile.mpsc.state.mi.us/efile/viewcase.php?casenum=17936&submit.x=5&submit.y=10

Additional Info on the Peak Pricing Program

This info is taken from the MPSC.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reported that Michigan showed the highest potential of any state in the U.S. for reducing electricity demands at peak usage hours.

Demand-response technology is being proposed so utilities won't have to build new power plants to meet peak demand.

The MPSC recently directed Michigan’s largest utilities to engage in enhanced planning and marketing of demand response efforts.  This is part of why you see DTE sending you bill inserts touting the use of the SmartApp that will tell you how much energy you are using. DTE is already instituting time-of-use rates. Right now they are voluntary. At some point, they won’t be. Peak rates in Oklahoma are 10 times normal rates.

Consumers describes the Peak Power Savers (PPS) and Dynamic Peak Pricing (DPP) programs, which the utility plans to make available to residential customers with advanced metering infrastructure (SMART) meters. These programs are based on results from pilots conducted in 2010. Consumers reports that PPS will be made available to customers sometime in 2016 and DPP in January 2017.

The MPSC will likely conduct a study on the potential to reduce electric consumption and peak demand through the implementation of demand-response (DR), a.k.a., time-of-use rate, technologies and practices. The MPSC Staff shall coordinate with the Michigan Agency for Energy, regulated utilities, and other stakeholders to examine funding options, cost estimates, timing, and scope, and shall report back to the Commission no later than September 29, 2016.


See this link for the MPSC’s description of the cases: http://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-47796-380744--,00.html

See this link for the case itself: http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/orders/electric/2016/u-  

Not Happy with DTE?

If you want to keep your analog meter

If DTE has installed a smart meter

Please read all the information on our website, Smart Meter Education Network.
(each red-brown item is a link you can click on)

Why the Opt-Out Meter barely helps you.

Dirty Electricity.

Replacing Your Smart Meter.

Responding to DTE Letters.

How to Keep the Meter Off Your Home.

The Analog Meter Choice Bill.

and more.

Dog Tortured by Smart Meter

I hope you will share this with all your animal-loving friends. It may explain otherwise inexplicable behavior in some pets, and also shows how smart meters can harm living creatures. In this You Tube video, you will see how a dog who used to be quite content inside his large yard now spends all his time trying to escape. This behavior began immediately after the smart meter was installed. The smart meter is located where the back porch is. The meters emit wireless radiation in all directions, and this dog is unprotected.

Smart meters are the new electric meters being installed by utilities across the world. They emit radiofrequency radiation at very high levels in millisecond bursts. While the FCC says they are safe, this is untrue, and they are causing grave harm to humans and animals. Some humans and some animals are much more sensitive than others.

To learn more about smart meters and the harm they cause, visit the Smart Meter Education Network website. If you go to the page What Are Smart Meters, you will learn about how the meters radiate.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvjlWnXhGjw

Columbiaville Passes Resolution Against Smart Meters

Another Michigan municipality passes a resolution against smart meters. Columbiaville supports the right of all DTE customers to have the choice to have an analog meter on their home. On April 11, 2016 the city passed a resolution (pages 4 and 5 on this link) urging the state legislature to pass House Bill 4916, the Analog Meter Choice Bill. The resolution came about as a result of the work of Brock Millard, a local resident who has been educating city officials throughout Lapeer County about the health and privacy dangers of smart meters. David Willis, a Columbiaville resident, told the city council at its March 7 meeting that his aunt in Flint Township is experiencing health problems from the smart meters.

Columbiaville’s village clerk, Denise Baker, took a stand against DTE installing a smart meter on the Village Office, and also opposed the installation of a radiofrequency-emitting broadband pole on the corner of First and Pine Streets. Ms. Baker is a wise woman.

Are you a Michigan resident? Then it is very important that you talk with your own state legislators regading the Analog Meter Choice Bill. It is also crucial that you educate friends and neighbors via our flyers and our website. Nothing is won by people sitting silently by! Vote with your voice! Contact your state legislators today.

To learn how to get the meter off your home, and for more information about smart meters, go to the Michigan Smart Meter Education Network website.You can also sign up for our newsletter to stay updated.

Grandville business owner receives $13,000 Consumers Energy electric bill

Grandville business owner receives $13,000 Consumers Energy electric bill. Fox News story.

Consumers Energy Customers Being Overcharged Tens of Thousands of Dollars

Consumers Energy told Fox News they're confident their smart meters work correctly. The homeowner said he’s confident they don't.

Jerry Bosse was charged $22,000 by Consumers Energy for a two bedroom home, and said he won't pay it.  Not only did he get charged with 14 months of estimated reads, but had a smart meter that's reading higher-than-normal usage. He said Consumers told him that it was reading $500 a month in electric usage.Bosse’s story is only the latest in a string of complaints about Consumers Energy bills. On Thursday, FOX 17 Problem Solver Cassandra Arsenault investigated a business owner facing a $13,000 bill for a single month. Consumers claimed it was a billing glitch in their system.

Many others are also getting these outrageous bills.

Read the Fox News story, and please comment on it.

Can Consumers Customers Keep Their Analog?

Huh! Consumers Energy keeps refusing to tell people who email or call them that they CAN keep their old meter (even though Consumers said in a court case it would allow people to keep them). Well, here WTVB says that those who do not want the upgraded meters can opt out and keep their old meter. Hmm. So Consumers is willing to tell them but not its own customers?

See our lengthy page on the Consumers Energy opt-out and your right to keep your analog (and how to make sure you do) on our website.

It took 40 years after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima for brain cancer to show up in the

How far cell phone radiation penetrates into brain. From Om Ghandi, PhD.

humans exposed to the bomb's radiation. The fact that you do not currently seem to experience harm from all the radiofrequency radiation now surrounding us does not mean you are not being slowly harmed--it's a slow boil. Cancer rarely shows up in less than 10 years from exposure: tobacco, asbestos, benzene all take many more years to show their devastating effects.

Your cell phone provider now tells you to keep your phone between 1/4" and 5/8" away from your body to avoid tissue-heating effects. According to the FCC, the only thing you have to worry about from radiofrequency radiation is the heating of your tissue. But, in fact, thousands of scientific studies have shown that DNA is affected even when tissue is not heated.

The claim, made even by Devra Davis of the Environmental Health Trust, that distance helps masks reality. Yes, the amount of RF decreseas exponentially with distance. But--when you are living in a sea of radiation a quintillion times that of a century ago, this becomes irrelevant. You are, in the words of Dr. Martin Blank, "overexposed." Sure, holding your phone near your mouth increases the distance from your brain, but not enough to matter unless you use a cell phone on a very rare basis. Even if you never use a cell phone, do not have wi-fi, and use corded phones, you are exposed to a sea of radiation so great that you will, over time, experience damaging effects on your health. You probably already are--you just don't know it. The tobacco smokers who got lung cancer didn't feel effects in their first years, even decades, of smoking.

The claim by Dr. Davis that airplane mode is safe is incorrect! In fact, most phones still emit or receive a signal even when on airplane mode, and even when OFF! Off is not off, except for Obamaphones and a few rare cell phones! This may be because the supposedly off phones are still receiving GPS signals. I can feel cell phones, even when they are "off." First time I was aware of this, a friend came to my door. I didn't know he had a cell phone in his shirt pocket. He knew how sensitive I was to cell phone. Within a minute-and-a-half, I began feeling very ill. I asked him if he had his cell phone on him. He said, "Yes, but it's off, not just airplane mode but totally off." OFF IS NOT OFF! CELL PHONES ARE NOT SAFE, PERIOD! 

Your smart meter, your Wi-Fi, your cell phone, and all the radiofrequency radiation you are surrounded by (your neighbors' Wi-Fi, smart meters, cell towers, etc.) have caused the amount of radiofrequency radiation in the atmosphere to increase one quintillion times over what they were in previous times.

One cellphone call exposes every bystander 10 feet away to one trillion times the background RF radiation levels - talk about second-hand "smoke". Also, remember microwave radiation from wireless devices is pulsed and modulated while natural background radiation is not.

See or read ABC Catalyst's excellent program on RF radiation.

Data Mining Threatens Your Privacy

Onzo Corporation announces that, yes, indeed, utilities can use your data to make you buy things, change what you do, and make the utility more money. "By transforming big utility data into real insight, we help companies in the energy space understand how each customer uses energy on a personal level. This insight can then be leveraged to improve customer engagement, satisfaction and loyalty, while increasing revenue and operational efficiency." Onzo.com.  "Millions of AMI [smart meter] data points and hundreds

Onzo Corporation ad

of thousands of additional metrics and values can now be combined and analyzed, taking utility customer data mining to a whole new level and driving decision-making capabilities that weren't even possible before,"  the company states in a February 9, 2016  press release. With ultra-granular data, Onzo notes, the utility can determine: "1) Where are the biggest concentration of customers that are most likely to respond to a smart thermostat offer based on analysis of occupancy, consumption and demographic characteristics? 2) Which customers typically use high-consuming appliances during peak load times. 3) Which customer groups are mostly likely to respond to energy efficiency programs and what drivers are best at motivating a positive response?"

"With the hardware, utilities can combine and query data at much more granular level to more fully unlock the power of their smart meter and sensor data."

 

Read more about smart meters and smart meter privacy issues at the Smart Meter Education Network.

LED Lights Harm Your Eyes

LED Lights Harm Your Eyes

(and your reproductive system, your DNA, and your ability to sleep--among other things)

LED lights are extremely dangerous. Do not use them, and get rid of them if you have them. Get amber-colored glasses to protect your eyes when you drive or use computer, TV, phone and other screens with LED backlighting. Eagle Eyes sells amber glasses and clip-ons. Accumulation of cellular debris called lipofuscin in your retinal pigment epithelium is responsible for the damage

LEDs damage the retina. Even an industry website highlights some of the dangers: "The issues of most concern identified by the Agency concern the eye due to the toxic effect of blue light and the risk of glare," says the report, adding that the blue light necessary to obtain white LEDs causes "toxic stress" to the retina. LEDs Magazine (part of the LEDs & Lighting media group, the world’s leading media resource focused on the LED and lighting industry).

Besides emitting blue light, LEDs put out an intense magnetic field. When I drive, I feel like I am running the gauntlet as car after car stabs EMFs into my brain. When the light is steady, as when I am under a street light, I become nauseous and my head feels as if it is being crushed in a vise. Certain vehicles are worse than others--Cadillacs and Chevys, some Hondas, and many foreign makes come to mind.

LEDs emit a SQUARE wave--totally unnatural. Nature isn't digitized. They employ switched mode power supplies, the same thing that is used in smart meters and creates health-destroying dirty electricity.

LEDs deplete melatonin. This causes  DNA damage and difficulty in cell repair. They disrupt your sleep cycle and the sleep and mating cycles of fireflies and other living creatures.

Blue light waves are more likely to cause harm to the retina among people who are prone to macular issues due to aging, environment, genetics or health habits

Read more at
Harvard Health Letter
Electroncs Stack Exchange

DTE "Shut-Off" Letters?

DTE Letters Implying Shut-Off in 30 Days
Are Nothing New and Can Be Ignored

Letters have been sent since January 2014
DTE does not shut off your electricity if you do not respond to this letter.
It is an intimidation tactic that will only be successful if you cave in.

 

Since January 2014, DTE has sent out a letter to some people who have meters that are locked or behind a gate. There is no discernible rhyme or reason to who they send it to. Recently, DTE has begun sending this letter out again.. In this "30-day" letter, DTE cites MPSC Rule 460.167, tells the recipient that DTE has the right to shut off their electricity if they do not allow the installation of the smart meter, and implies that the recipient that they must respond within 30 days to avoid shut-off. DTE has been sending these letters out since January 2014. No one has ever had their electricity shut off because they received this letter. Here is an example of this letter.

We have recommend that you not respond to this letter. Do not fan the flames. For more information about this letter and all the other letters DTE sends out, please see our page Keep the Meter Off / Respond to DTE Letters and Phone Calls. The letter DTE has been sending out recently is Letter #4 on this page. 

Hillsdale Now Targeted by Consumers Energy for Smart Meter Installation

In what amounts to an ad for Consumers Energy, the Hillsdale Daily News has written a story (call it a

fairy tale) on the upcoming smart meter installation. The story is inaccurate and full of holes.

The meters will supposedly be installed in the fall. Neither Consumers Energy nor the newspaper bother to tell the reader that a person may retain their analog meter. See our website post on the Consumers Energy opt-out for information on how to keep your analog meter.

Be sure to let everyone know, you can opt out. And be sure to write your state rep regarding the Analog Choice Bill.

http://www.hillsdale.net/article/20160116/NEWS/160119304

Grid Hacked in Ukraine

HACKING THE GRID. Highly destructive malware that infected at least three regional power

companies left hundreds of thousands of homes in the Ukraine without electricity.

"It's a milestone because we've definitely seen targeted destructive events against energy before—oil firms, for instance—but never the event which causes the blackout," John Hultquist, head of iSIGHT's cyber espionage intelligence practice, told Ars. "It's the major scenario we've all been concerned about for so long."

See the report at Ars Technica.