To the editor:
Tom Fletcher, a longtime supporter of the wireless smart meter program and author of the article, headlined Smart meter complaint rejected, in the March 7 Peace Arch News, was quick to write about the recent B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) dismissal of our complaint against BC Hydro and its wireless smart meter program.
It seems he received notice before our lawyer did. He had the story written before we received BCUC’s response.
The recent BCUC decision to dismiss our legal complaint against BC Hydro’s “wireless program” was not a surprise when you realize 34 municipalities (representing almost two million people) are calling for a moratorium and being ignored, and Dr. Perry Kendall says he can find “no evidence of harm” even though the World Health Organization recently classified the radiation from smart meters as a class 2B carcinogen.
The BCUC states, “there is insufficient evidence to prove that the Clean Energy Act (CEA) didn’t prescribe wireless meters,” but as our lawyer David Aaron states in his legal complaint:
1. Wireless capabilities are not necessary to fulfill the prescribed requirements under the CEA and the regulation. Wireless capabilities exceed the prescribed requirements (Aaron, Dec. 22, 2011, letter, paras. 30, 38).
2. Neither the CEA nor the regulation explicitly requires BC Hydro to install a wireless system. If the legislature intended BC Hydro to implement a wireless smart metering system, it would have explicitly outlined that requirement in the regulation due to the serious public interest concerns (Aaron, Jan. 27, 2012 letter, paras. 12, 14).
BC Hydro and BCUC are also denying the Zigbee chip (snooping component) will be used to collect personal data and sell it to corporations. But they know appliances with reader chips, are the next generation of appliances, designed to operate with your smart meter.
They know pretty soon we’ll be required to “change out” our old appliances to ensure we are all hooked up like lab rats. Add soaring bills into the mix and a provincial government that doesn’t care and we are left with no choice but to appeal the BCUC’s decision.
Andrea Collins, lead complainant
Citizens for Safe Technology
