09-10-2012, 08:11 AM
"This is our first big opportunity to comment against toxic smart meters. The Federal government has mandated meetings on every island to get community input. Starting Sept. 11 and ending Sept. 20 a series of Federal PEIS (programmatic environmental impact statement) meetings are happening. The PEIS meetings are being called the “Clean Energy PEIS” but don’t let that fool you. The so-called “clean energy” includes the outrageous $16 billion undersea electric cables to link the islands, and smart meter/smart grid initiatives, as well as many other not-so-clean projects.
PLEASE attend the PEIS meeting on your island. This is Step 1, a survey of potential problems. Then comes Step 2, the full-blown EIS. Below is the schedule followed by some suggested talking points. Make sure to scroll down and read the talking points because I have included important smart meter updates in them.
The PEIS will take comments from ANYONE, including folks from the mainland who love Hawaii and don’t want this to happen, tourists, potential tourists, friends of the whales, relatives, people from around the world are welcome and encouraged to comment! You can even choose to comment anonymously if you want. The federal government is making this really easy. They want our input. There’s no excuse not to do this. Please spread the word!
Beware: You must comment in a certain way in order for it to be counted as testimony. Guidelines: State your concerns clearly and simply. Ask questions. Be specific.
Come to the meeting AND submit your comments electronically. You can do both!
Email comments: hawaiicleanenergypeis@ee.doe.gov
Submit via website: www.tinyurl.com/HIpeis. This is a correct URL. Their website was down when I checked a few minutes ago. Bummer! I want to believe it's because of so many comments. Please keep trying!
Meeting Schedule:
Sept 11 - 5:00-8:30 PM O'ahu, McKinley High School, 1039 S. King St., Honolulu, HI 96814
Sept 12 - 5:30-9:00 PM Kaua'i, Kaua'i War Memorial Convention Hall, 4191 Hardy St., Lihue, HI 96766
Sept 13 - 5:00-8:30 PM Hawai'i (Kona) - Kealakehe High School, 74-5000 Puohulihuli St. Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
Sept 14 - 5:00-8:30 PM Hawai'i (Hilo) - Hilo High School, 556 Waianuenue Ave, Hilo, HI 96720
Sept 17 - 5:30-9:00 PM Maui, Pomaika'i Elementary School, 4650 S. Kamehameha Ave., Kahului, HI 96732
Sept 18 - 5:00-8:30 PM Lanai, Lanai High and Elementary School, 555 Fraser Ave., Lanai City, HI 96763
Sept 19 - 5:30-9:00 PM, Molokai, Mitchell Pau'ole Community Center, 90 Ainoa St., Kaunakakai, HI 96748
Sept 20 - 5:00-8:30 PM, O'ahu, James B. Castle High School, 45-386 Kaneohe Bay Dr., Kaneohe, HI 96744
Some Suggested Talking Points. Start by mentioning the smart grid:
1. For the proposed smart grid to be successful it would require residential smart meters as well as smart meters on schools and hospitals. What about the negative health effects? Smart meters make people sick.
2. Even if I opt out of a smart meter I can get radiation exposure from my neighbor’s smart meter. Radio frequency/microwave radiation easily travels through the walls of my house. How will the radio frequency radiation be contained? Houses in Hawaii are not well insulated so there is less protection against the radiation. How will this be addressed?
3. There are thousands of published scientific research studies showing the damaging health effects of radio frequency/microwave frequencies like those used in a smart grid. The World Health Organization (WHO) has determined radio frequency radiation is a class 2B carcinogen. Who will compensate people for smart meter induced illnesses?
4. More and more biophysicists, physicians, and public health officials from around the world are demanding a reduction in electromagnetic radiation exposure levels to protect public health. India just lowered its levels by a factor of ten. The US has some of the most lax regulations of all. How can you justify moving forward with smart grid technology in light of this controversy?
5. Smart grid technology is highly controversial. Opposition is growing as more science shows negative health effects. Lawsuits are bound to follow. Hawaii has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Who will compensate property owners for the loss of value of their residential and commercial buildings?
6. Smart grid technologies such as smart meters are not UL safety certified (and lack Canada Safety Standards approval). Safety standards exist and are applied to other electrical components. Yet there is no evidence of any UL or CSA certification for smart meters. How will the safety of these unregulated meters be ensured? Isn’t moving ahead with untested technology risky?
7. An electrical contractor on Kauai recorded a smart meter installed at a business on Kauai that showed the pulsed microwave emissions were over 1300% greater than KUIC’s claim. How will smart meter/smart grid manufacturers be held accountable? Who will oversee testing of individual meters and meters all linked to communicate with each other?
8. Smart grid technologies sometimes interfere with other technologies and can cause medical implants and other medical machines to fail. Who will be held accountable for this? What about loss of life?
9. The Maine Judicial Supreme Court ruled that the Maine Public Utilities Commission failed to resolve health and safety issues related to installation of smart meters and should do so now. What will be done to address health and safety issues related to the smart grid in Hawaii?
10. What about residents who are electrosensitive? Will you create a refugee zone for them to live? Won’t they have to be relocated? Who will pay for this? Who will compensate the refugees? Where will they go? (This is a very legitimate question, as so far France and Italy have created EMF refugee zones for people with electrosensitivity.)
11. How will underwater electric cables be laid without damaging the reefs and marine life? Electromagnetic radiation at these levels does not typically exist underwater. These cables would emit radiation constantly. What are the effects of this type of electromagnetic radiation on marine life?
12. Smart meters raise power bills. How will these increased power bills affect poor and lower income people? People on fixed or low incomes generally live in smaller dwellings so they will be in closer proximity to the smart meters. They also tend to live in multi-tenant dwellings, which means living next to banks of multiple smart meters. This will unfairly penalize people with lower incomes.
13. People who are retired, on a fixed income, or unemployed tend to be home during the daytime. Smart meters charge a higher rate for daytime energy. This will unfairly penalize people with lower incomes.
14. People with lower incomes tend to have older appliances that are less energy efficient. Smart meters are designed to interface with new, higher priced smart appliances. This will unfairly penalize people with lower incomes.
15. There have been many reports from around the world and every region of the US of smart meters causing fires. How will people be compensated for smart meter fires? What about loss of life?
16. Smart meters have the potential to track intimate details of our electrical lives. This time-specific utility usage data is permanently stored. Who will control access to this data? How secure is this data? Who owes this data? What will be done with this data?
17. Experts indicate that linking power grids together, as proposed by the undersea electrical cables and smart grid, makes the grid more vulnerable to solar flare outages and cyber attacks. How will these issues be addressed?
And for the more technically inclined:
18. A wireless smart meter produces radio frequency microwave radiation with two antennas in approximately the same frequency range (900 MHz to 2.4 GHz) as a typical cell tower. With a cell phone, we are exposed to microwaves primarily in the head and neck and only when we use the device. With smart meters, the entire body is immersed by microwaves that go out in all directions, which increases the risk of overexposure to many sensitive organs such as the eyes and testicles. What will be done about this?
19. Radio frequency emissions from cell towers and WiFi are in the form of beams in one or more specific directions. Their intensity is reduced greatly if your home is located far away and at lower elevation than the antennas. In contrast, the intensity of near-field exposures very close to radio frequency sources such as smart meters are more unpredictable because the wavelengths are unstable. How will this be addressed?
20. Typical wireless smart meters produce atypical, relatively potent and very short pulsed radio frequency microwaves whose biological effects have never been fully tested. They emit millisecond-long radio frequency bursts on average 9,600 times a day with a maximum of 190,000 daily transmissions and a peak level emission two and a half times higher than the stated safety signal (as the California utility Pacific Gas & Electric recognized before that State’s Public Utilities Commission). Thus people in proximity to a smart meter are at risk of significantly greater aggregate of microwave exposure than with a cell phone, not to mention the cumulative exposure received by people living near multiple meters mounted together, pole-mounted routers or utility collector meters using a third antenna to relay microwave signals from 500 to 5,000 homes. How will this be addressed? Why is the smart grid being proposed in light of this serious lack of testing of effects on human health?
21. A very solid technical study by Sage Associates indicates that radio frequency levels from various smart meter scenarios depicting normal installation and operation may violate out-of-date US public safety standards which only consider acute thermal effects. This can happen when a person stands six inches away from the smart meter. Many people can have their beds or baby cribs in close proximity to smart meters. How will this be addressed?
Whew! That’s it for me. Feel free to pick and choose, mix and match, cut and paste, and create your own!
Let’s end with a fun short video with more info and guidance on commenting at the meetings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpurOst57wM
I’ll see you at the Maui meeting and be there in spirit at the others.
Mahalo,
Debra
www.StopSmartMetersHawaii.com "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SpurOst57wM WHEN TO WEAR YOUR MALO
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped" Dr. Ron Paul 2012
PLEASE attend the PEIS meeting on your island. This is Step 1, a survey of potential problems. Then comes Step 2, the full-blown EIS. Below is the schedule followed by some suggested talking points. Make sure to scroll down and read the talking points because I have included important smart meter updates in them.
The PEIS will take comments from ANYONE, including folks from the mainland who love Hawaii and don’t want this to happen, tourists, potential tourists, friends of the whales, relatives, people from around the world are welcome and encouraged to comment! You can even choose to comment anonymously if you want. The federal government is making this really easy. They want our input. There’s no excuse not to do this. Please spread the word!
Beware: You must comment in a certain way in order for it to be counted as testimony. Guidelines: State your concerns clearly and simply. Ask questions. Be specific.
Come to the meeting AND submit your comments electronically. You can do both!
Email comments: hawaiicleanenergypeis@ee.doe.gov
Submit via website: www.tinyurl.com/HIpeis. This is a correct URL. Their website was down when I checked a few minutes ago. Bummer! I want to believe it's because of so many comments. Please keep trying!
Meeting Schedule:
Sept 11 - 5:00-8:30 PM O'ahu, McKinley High School, 1039 S. King St., Honolulu, HI 96814
Sept 12 - 5:30-9:00 PM Kaua'i, Kaua'i War Memorial Convention Hall, 4191 Hardy St., Lihue, HI 96766
Sept 13 - 5:00-8:30 PM Hawai'i (Kona) - Kealakehe High School, 74-5000 Puohulihuli St. Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
Sept 14 - 5:00-8:30 PM Hawai'i (Hilo) - Hilo High School, 556 Waianuenue Ave, Hilo, HI 96720
Sept 17 - 5:30-9:00 PM Maui, Pomaika'i Elementary School, 4650 S. Kamehameha Ave., Kahului, HI 96732
Sept 18 - 5:00-8:30 PM Lanai, Lanai High and Elementary School, 555 Fraser Ave., Lanai City, HI 96763
Sept 19 - 5:30-9:00 PM, Molokai, Mitchell Pau'ole Community Center, 90 Ainoa St., Kaunakakai, HI 96748
Sept 20 - 5:00-8:30 PM, O'ahu, James B. Castle High School, 45-386 Kaneohe Bay Dr., Kaneohe, HI 96744
Some Suggested Talking Points. Start by mentioning the smart grid:
1. For the proposed smart grid to be successful it would require residential smart meters as well as smart meters on schools and hospitals. What about the negative health effects? Smart meters make people sick.
2. Even if I opt out of a smart meter I can get radiation exposure from my neighbor’s smart meter. Radio frequency/microwave radiation easily travels through the walls of my house. How will the radio frequency radiation be contained? Houses in Hawaii are not well insulated so there is less protection against the radiation. How will this be addressed?
3. There are thousands of published scientific research studies showing the damaging health effects of radio frequency/microwave frequencies like those used in a smart grid. The World Health Organization (WHO) has determined radio frequency radiation is a class 2B carcinogen. Who will compensate people for smart meter induced illnesses?
4. More and more biophysicists, physicians, and public health officials from around the world are demanding a reduction in electromagnetic radiation exposure levels to protect public health. India just lowered its levels by a factor of ten. The US has some of the most lax regulations of all. How can you justify moving forward with smart grid technology in light of this controversy?
5. Smart grid technology is highly controversial. Opposition is growing as more science shows negative health effects. Lawsuits are bound to follow. Hawaii has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Who will compensate property owners for the loss of value of their residential and commercial buildings?
6. Smart grid technologies such as smart meters are not UL safety certified (and lack Canada Safety Standards approval). Safety standards exist and are applied to other electrical components. Yet there is no evidence of any UL or CSA certification for smart meters. How will the safety of these unregulated meters be ensured? Isn’t moving ahead with untested technology risky?
7. An electrical contractor on Kauai recorded a smart meter installed at a business on Kauai that showed the pulsed microwave emissions were over 1300% greater than KUIC’s claim. How will smart meter/smart grid manufacturers be held accountable? Who will oversee testing of individual meters and meters all linked to communicate with each other?
8. Smart grid technologies sometimes interfere with other technologies and can cause medical implants and other medical machines to fail. Who will be held accountable for this? What about loss of life?
9. The Maine Judicial Supreme Court ruled that the Maine Public Utilities Commission failed to resolve health and safety issues related to installation of smart meters and should do so now. What will be done to address health and safety issues related to the smart grid in Hawaii?
10. What about residents who are electrosensitive? Will you create a refugee zone for them to live? Won’t they have to be relocated? Who will pay for this? Who will compensate the refugees? Where will they go? (This is a very legitimate question, as so far France and Italy have created EMF refugee zones for people with electrosensitivity.)
11. How will underwater electric cables be laid without damaging the reefs and marine life? Electromagnetic radiation at these levels does not typically exist underwater. These cables would emit radiation constantly. What are the effects of this type of electromagnetic radiation on marine life?
12. Smart meters raise power bills. How will these increased power bills affect poor and lower income people? People on fixed or low incomes generally live in smaller dwellings so they will be in closer proximity to the smart meters. They also tend to live in multi-tenant dwellings, which means living next to banks of multiple smart meters. This will unfairly penalize people with lower incomes.
13. People who are retired, on a fixed income, or unemployed tend to be home during the daytime. Smart meters charge a higher rate for daytime energy. This will unfairly penalize people with lower incomes.
14. People with lower incomes tend to have older appliances that are less energy efficient. Smart meters are designed to interface with new, higher priced smart appliances. This will unfairly penalize people with lower incomes.
15. There have been many reports from around the world and every region of the US of smart meters causing fires. How will people be compensated for smart meter fires? What about loss of life?
16. Smart meters have the potential to track intimate details of our electrical lives. This time-specific utility usage data is permanently stored. Who will control access to this data? How secure is this data? Who owes this data? What will be done with this data?
17. Experts indicate that linking power grids together, as proposed by the undersea electrical cables and smart grid, makes the grid more vulnerable to solar flare outages and cyber attacks. How will these issues be addressed?
And for the more technically inclined:
18. A wireless smart meter produces radio frequency microwave radiation with two antennas in approximately the same frequency range (900 MHz to 2.4 GHz) as a typical cell tower. With a cell phone, we are exposed to microwaves primarily in the head and neck and only when we use the device. With smart meters, the entire body is immersed by microwaves that go out in all directions, which increases the risk of overexposure to many sensitive organs such as the eyes and testicles. What will be done about this?
19. Radio frequency emissions from cell towers and WiFi are in the form of beams in one or more specific directions. Their intensity is reduced greatly if your home is located far away and at lower elevation than the antennas. In contrast, the intensity of near-field exposures very close to radio frequency sources such as smart meters are more unpredictable because the wavelengths are unstable. How will this be addressed?
20. Typical wireless smart meters produce atypical, relatively potent and very short pulsed radio frequency microwaves whose biological effects have never been fully tested. They emit millisecond-long radio frequency bursts on average 9,600 times a day with a maximum of 190,000 daily transmissions and a peak level emission two and a half times higher than the stated safety signal (as the California utility Pacific Gas & Electric recognized before that State’s Public Utilities Commission). Thus people in proximity to a smart meter are at risk of significantly greater aggregate of microwave exposure than with a cell phone, not to mention the cumulative exposure received by people living near multiple meters mounted together, pole-mounted routers or utility collector meters using a third antenna to relay microwave signals from 500 to 5,000 homes. How will this be addressed? Why is the smart grid being proposed in light of this serious lack of testing of effects on human health?
21. A very solid technical study by Sage Associates indicates that radio frequency levels from various smart meter scenarios depicting normal installation and operation may violate out-of-date US public safety standards which only consider acute thermal effects. This can happen when a person stands six inches away from the smart meter. Many people can have their beds or baby cribs in close proximity to smart meters. How will this be addressed?
Whew! That’s it for me. Feel free to pick and choose, mix and match, cut and paste, and create your own!
Let’s end with a fun short video with more info and guidance on commenting at the meetings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpurOst57wM
I’ll see you at the Maui meeting and be there in spirit at the others.
Mahalo,
Debra
www.StopSmartMetersHawaii.com "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SpurOst57wM WHEN TO WEAR YOUR MALO
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped" Dr. Ron Paul 2012
SECRET KNOWLEDGE - "NOT FOR US TO KNOW"? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91qs9v-upWI
