Category Archives: Smart Meters

September 21, 2018 Radio Commentary

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Troubling News about Smart Meters

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, September 21, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Beginning in 2007, Georgia Power and other electric companies began replacing analog meters with smart meters that record and remotely transmit power use in real time. As a result, power companies (a) don’t need meter-readers anymore; (b) they can increase prices by time-of-use; and (c) turn off high-use appliances at any time.

By 2011 Georgia Power had installed 1.7 million smart meters and continued until all analog meters were replaced.  Since Georgia Power allowed no opt-outs, complaints led to legislative action in 2012, when the Senate passed S.B. 459, but the House didn’t.

On December 17, 2013 the Public Service Commission approved a Smart Meter Opt-Out charge in Georgia Power’s 2013 rate case.  Since then, Georgia Power has allowed opt-outs, but charges consumers $19 a month to have their analog meter read.

Now the court’s involved.  Last month on August 16th the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that smart meter data collection constitutes a search under the U.S. Constitution Fourth Amendment and the Illinois Constitution.  The court, also, decided the search is reasonable, although smart meters indicate when people are home, when the home is vacant, as well as the occupants’ sleeping and eating routines.  Also, smart meters monitor and record the power usage of specific appliances, which may be targetted for peak-use cut-off. Continue reading →

September 2014 Newsletter

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Perdue or Nunn:
Which would make Better Decisions in U.S. Senate?

To determine which candidate would better represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate, consider the responsibilities of U.S. senators. Certainly, senators make laws and introduce resolutions and bills, but additional major items of Senate business include the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices and ratification of foreign treaties. If ratified by the Senate, foreign treaties become the law of the land by superseding the U.S. Constitution, State Constitutions and statutes.

David Perdue or Michelle Nunn: Which would vote your values on the following issues?
a. What qualifications would Perdue or Nunn require of nominees to the Supreme Court*?
b. Which candidate would secure borders and stop illegal entry into the U.S.?
c. Which would give amnesty to illegal aliens and invite more “unaccompanied” illegals?
d. Which would vote to enact a global tax to be collected and redistributed by the U.N.?
e. How would Michelle Nunn or David Perdue vote on national or global disarmament**?
f. Would they ratify the U.N. Convention on Rights of the Child and deny parental authority?
g. Would either ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its hot-line authorizing U.N. intervention between patient/parent and patient/physician?
h. Would Nunn or Perdue agree to the U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) and the International Seabed Authority with its total jurisdiction over all oceans and everything in them, including the ocean floor with its solid, liquid or gaseous minerals? If it were ratified, the U.S. would be surrendering national sovereignty, independence of action, and wealth.
i. How would Nunn or Perdue handle the International Criminal Court treaty and its power to put service members serving overseas at risk of prosecution for petty or malicious charges?

(If you don’t know their positions on guns and justices, consider the two planks of their party platforms below.)

Excerpts from Democrat and Republican Platforms
*Judicial Appointments
Democrat Party will select and confirm judges who are men and women of unquestionable talent and character, who firmly respect the rule of law, who listen to and are respectful of different points of view, and who represent the diversity of America.

Republican Party will insist on appointing constitutionalist judges, men and women who will not distort our founding documents to deny the people’s right to self-government, sanction federal powers that violate our liberties, or inject foreign law into American jurisprudence.

  • To read the rest of this newsletter in PDF format, please click here.

February 21, 2014 Radio Commentary

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Smart Meters and You

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, February 21, 2014 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim.  Last month, the Public Service Commission voted 5 to 0 to approve an opt-out of smart meters for Georgia Power customers who prefer analog meters.

In case you don’t know, smart meters are not simple up-graded analog meters.  They are two-way radio frequency communication devices that emit radiation, 24/7 and measure, store and report electric use remotely, 24/7.  The more often they’re read, the more radio frequency radiation is emitted.  If they’re read every 15 minutes, an electric pulse radiates through your home, business or wherever it’s installed 96 times in a 24-hour period, 24/7.

Georgia utility companies began installing smart meters in 2008 with “no clear authority” from the Public Service Commission and without consumer consent.  Every time consumer consent was by-passed, Georgia Power violated the U.S. Energy Act of 2005 requiring electric utilities to “provide each customer requesting a time-based rate with a time-based meter ….”  I have never met anyone who requested time-based billing, but smart meters were installed, anyway.  Continue reading →

February 1, 2014 Newsletter

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Bad News: Republican Plans for a Constitutional Convention

S.R. 736. It was no coincidence when Representative Braddock introduced H.B. 794 January 23rd, the day before S.R. 736 passed its first committee hurdle. The two bills are Siamese twins. H.B. 794 is a plan to usher in and control an Article V convention that’s proposed by S.R. 736.

ACTION: Oppose S.R. 736. Call Rules Committee members. Senators Mullis, Ch., 404 656-0057; Tolleson, V. Ch., 656-0081; Jackson, Sec., 651-7738; Butler, 656-0075; Chance, 463-1366 Ex Officio; Gooch, 656-9221 Ex Officio; Henson, 656-0085; Hill, Jack, 656-5038; Hill, Judson, 636-0150; Millar, Fran; 463-2260; Miller, Butch, 656-6578 Ex Officio; Murphy, 656-7127; Shafer, 656-0048 Ex Officio; Staton, 656-5039 Ex Officio; Tate, 463-8053; Unterman, 463-1368.

H.B. 794 establishes a Compact Commission to encourage states to join the Compact and become “Member States” to cooperatively work toward a constitutional convention. If the General Assembly passes H.B. 794, it would amend Georgia law as OCGA Section 50-38-1.

The Compact Commission would serve as a “Compact for a Balanced Budget” – strange, with their push for the tri-focused S.R. 736 to (a) fiscally restrain the federal government, (b) limit federal power and jurisdiction, and (c) set term limits for federal officials, including Congress. Continue reading →