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Smart Meters Benefit Utilities and Exploit Customers-Have No Connection With Energy Efficiency or Sustainability

Smart Meters Benefit Utilities and Exploit Customers-Have No Connection With Energy Efficiency or Sustainability

Published 11-18-14

Submitted by National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy

The landmark white paper, “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid”, revealing billions of dollars of taxpayer money has been misspent on ‘smart’ meters with federal stimulus funding, was walked in to the offices of 200 members of Congress today by the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy (NISLAPP) and Maryland Smart Meter Awareness.

Included was the recent NISLAPP paper, “Green Electricity or Green Money? Why some environmental groups hamper clean energy”, a new paper on conflicts of interest at leading environmental organizations, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Natural Resources Defense Counsel (NRDC). The paper suggests conflicts prevent these groups from fully embracing the needed transition to a renewable energy economy.

Camilla Rees, Senior Policy Advisor to NISLAPP, says “Billions of dollars of ‘smart’ utility meters are being installed across America that are unable to integrate with, or enable, the ‘smart grid’ of the future on which U.S. energy sustainability depends. Congress ought to get a better grasp of the true elements of a smart grid and of an abundant renewable energy economy. We’re propping up a failing centralized utility model with purchases like these meters and need to change course now to allow the rooftop revolution to begin in seriousness on our soil.”

“Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid”, written by NISLAPP Senior Research Fellow, Timothy Schoechle, PhD, explains the new meters and networks do not improve energy efficiency, enhance energy management, help balance supply and demand, or facilitate the integration of renewable sources.  Instead, the meters drive up costs, introduce unnecessary risks to personal privacy, health and safety, and divert financial and technical resources needed to create a truly wise grid. “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid” describes what a truly smart electricity grid would look like, one that is capable of integrating "distributed" power generation from renewable and sustainable energy sources without the privacy, security, cost, reliability, radiation, or potential public health impacts of the present approach.

Timothy Schoechle, Ph.D. has been engaged in engineering development of electric utility gateways and energy management systems for over 25 years. He is an expert on the international standards system and serves as secretariat of ISO/IEC SC32 Data Management and Interchange, and Secretary of ISO/IEC SC25 Working Group 1, the international standards committee for Home Electronic Systems. Dr. Schoechle is a founder of BI Incorporated, pioneer developer of RFID technology, and former faculty member of the University of Colorado College of Engineering and Applied Science. 

Anita Moore, DVM, a veterinarian in Lothian, MD, and a member of Maryland Smart Meter Awareness, says, “The irony of this is that the smart meter isn’t even necessary to modernize the grid.  The basis on which the meters have been presented to communities is false and Americans need to know this.“

Download “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid”

Media Advisory “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid”

Download “Green Electricity or Green Money? Why some environmental groups hamper clean energy”

Media Advisory “Green Electricity or Green Money?”

National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy

National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy

Bringing Science and Law Together to Create Intelligent Policy The National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy (NISLAPP) was founded in 1978 to bridge the gap between scientific uncertainties and the need for laws protecting public health and safety. Its overriding objective is to bring practitioners of science and law together to develop intelligent policy that best serves all interested parties in a given controversy. Its focus is on the points at which these two disciplines converge. The constantly evolving nature of scientific research, together with the accelerated pace of technological advancement, has drawn into question the reliability of the information on which decision makers in both government and industry rely. Many of the innovations that have led to the development of new products and processes have also raised significant new health, safety, and efficacy issues for consumers. NISLAPP's mission is to help reconcile the historic and political vagaries of the legal process with the absence of "absolute" scientific answers in addressing immediate and long-range consumer concerns. Rather than attempting a definitive resolution of such problems, this approach is aimed at encouraging honest interplay to help promote autonomous arrangements in areas of health and public safety. To this end, attorney, author and consumer advocate James S. Turner, a cofounder of the organization, and other staff members have served as a source of enlightenment to the consumer movement, industry and public policymakers alike. Their attempts to apply common-sense criteria to common-good concerns have included speeches, testimony at Congressional hearings, FDA petitions, legal actions, cosponsoring of regulatory and judicial initiatives, and collaboration with selected industry representatives, as well as participation in government-sponsored events and co-sponsoring or supporting events at the grassroots level. Typical of the organization's efforts to propel consumer issues into the legislative arena is its campaign to allow dental patients access to information on mercury-free procedures via the Consumer Dental Choice Project. The initiative's aim is to overcome restrictions that effectively prevent dentists from initiating conversations with consumers about such options or even discussing the health risks of mercury amalgams with them. The project is but one example of NISLAPP's ongoing work to bridge gaps in education and information regarding scientific and medical technologies, focusing on what we do know and what can be extrapolated from that, rather than demanding unequivocal levels of certainty before safeguards can be erected. In keeping with another of its efforts -- the campaign for a safe American food supply - NISLAPP has continually endeavored to acquaint consumers with the dangers of the artificial sweetener aspartame or (better known by the brand names Nutrasweet and Equal). The organization regards its as vital that the public understand why there has always been a question in the minds of scientists and many FDA employees, about its approval process, and that consumers know something of the thousands of adverse-reaction complaints associated with this chemical additive now found in so many 'diet" products. The NutraMancer City Web Site Project is one of NISLAPP's endeavors to aid the public in finding out more about the effects of aspartame, enabling people to report any problems they have encountered with aspartame use, become acquainted with its problematic history, and read about the scientific and medical issues involved in the debate. It is NISLAPP's intent to continue to make such knowledge available to American consumers, forge dialogue between parties who may see themselves as diametrically opposed to each other's interests, and reconcile legal and scientific concerns in the formulation of intelligent, safe and sensible public policy.

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