Santa Cruz County supervisors this week extended a moratorium on smart meter installations through 2011 in response to concerns about privacy, higher utility bills, and health effects of pulsed wireless transmissions. Also this week, Monterey County supervisors voted unanimously to send a Health Department report finding no problems with smart meters back for more work and the inclusion of action options.
Santa Cruz supervisors initiated the agenda item with this letter, stating:
…PG&E has failed to meaningfully address the questions raised by the public about possible health effects and faulty technology. Repeated requests to the Public Utilities Commission and to PG&E have gone unanswered. We believe this apparent indifference to public concern leaves the Board with no alternative but to again adopt an urgency ordinance imposing a moratorium on the installation of Smart Meters in the unincorporated area of the county.
Senior PG&E representatives attended the Monterey County meeting as eight speakers succeeded in urging the supervisors to pull a Health Department report out of the consent items and reject it, with one saying, “it appears to rely on data provided by PG&E, a commercial entity that stands to make a great deal of money from other uses for Smart Meters and the smart grid system if it is implemented.”
Josh Marks at Green SoCal published this post asserting that Smart Meters are safe, but comments to his post disagree with the reasoning.