A unanimous vote by the city council formally endorsed their support for pending legislation before the Assembly that would require PG&E to offer alternatives to the wirelessly transmitting SmartMeters.
The issue continues to involve unanswered questions or and issues that have not been satisfactorily investigated. For many, the question is one of health. For municipalities, as Mayor Bob Weiner said, it is a matter of municipalities not trusting the power company.
From the Marin Scope:
The Sausalito City Council unanimously decided last week to back state legislation that would provide an alternative to PG&E’s controversial SmartMeters.
On Feb. 15 the council asked city staff to draft a resolution supporting Marin Assemblyman Jared Huffman’s Assembly Bill 37, introduced in December, asking the California Public Utilities Commission to provide a SmartMeter “opt-out” option while requiring utilities to offer wired technology that is compatible with PG&E’s new Smart Grid, a system that delivers electricity via two-way technology.
Sausalito residents have expressed concern about health impacts from the meters’ signals as well as invasion-of-privacy concerns. As of Feb. 11, PG&E had recorded installing 4,856 electric SmartMeters (67 percent of all electric meters in town) and 3,024 gas SmartMeters (62 percent of all gas meters in town). The automatic SmartMeters use radio signals to track customer electricity and gas usage and send it to the utility in real time. PG&E expects to complete SmartMeter deployment to all customers by mid-2012.
Read the full article here.