Posted on 07/19/2012 3:41:33 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
A woman in Texas says she tried to be polite when she told the man from the power company that she didn't want to have her old electric meter replaced with a new "smart" meter. But when he refused to listen to her, she grabbed her gun.
The woman tells Houston's KHOU that she placed herself between the installer and her old meter but, "He just kept pushing me away."
That's when she showed him her handgun.
"He saw it, and went back the other way," she tells KHOU.
The homeowner says she is not comfortable with the amount of information smart meters transmit back to the power company.
"Our constitution allows us not to have that kind of intrusion on our personal privacy," she explains. "They’ll be able to tell if you are running your computer, air conditioner, whatever it is."
The woman still has her old meter and she and her husband have posted warning signs declaring "No Smart Meters Are to Be Installed On This Property," but CenterPoint, the power company that attempted to install the meter says it will persist in its efforts.
"We are deeply troubled by anyone who would pull a gun on another person performing their job," reads a statement from the company. "CenterPoint will be taking additional steps – including court actions – because what happened is dangerous, illegal and unwarranted."
KHOU reports that CenterPoint Energy already installed around 2 million smart meters in the area, but the local Public Utilities Commission is now weighing the possibility of allowing homeowners to have the new meters removed.
Whew. Glad this didn’t happen in Florida. Also glad she didn’t shoot.
As I understand for eventual future purposes, they monitor total usage. So if there was a heat wave and it cooled off but you were still running the air conditioning, you would get a notice from the power police, or a carbon credit penalty, or worse, branded as a climate change inducer, etc.
“I cannot understand why there is this fear of the smart meter.”
If they can, using the Obama Nudge, force you to use high demand appliances in off hours or anytime of high demand, they can mask the fact they deliberately under built generating facilities.
There is some merit to load balancing but this is a method to force you to make the “right choice” via significantly higher energy costs during times of high demand.
Against the law to buy a generator? Where’s that?
The company’s statement just shows how far for/by some moral, bureaucratic mentality some people think they can go. Robbing a bank might be someones idea of a job and to be troubled by someone thwarting such performance of a job/crime is asinine. I realize many people ,even in non government positions, are of such mindset.
She needs to turn off her power. That would show them.
When I was a kid, I knew someone respectable and of good intelligence who wouldn’t have a phone for much the same reasons people today are objecting to high-tech meters.
I could understand it if I were a meter reader.
This homeowner is probably in for a heap of trouble.
Might be a good time form them to invest in a natural gas powered generator, big enough to power the entire household.
And there is a lack of security in them
Think you get spam now; wait till your info is really given to third parties
I wish I could find the article that I read here a few years ago. The source article was a brochure from a company touting the "awesomeness" of smart meters, that could be incorporated into the "smart grid" and coupled with RFID tags that could--
automatically dim/brighten lights
note that you are out of toothpaste (track what products enter/leave)
dis/arm your burglar alarm, among others.
“Against the law to buy a generator? Where’s that?”
I misspoke. It’s not against the law to buy a generator. It’s against the law to use a generator 24/7/365 INSTEAD OF city-contolled-monopoly supplied power.
Not if they have an easement to read or service the meter, which they do.
I work for CenterPoint but not familiar enough with the electrical side of the business. I do know that the new smart meters will allow for better monitoring of the electrical use especially for emergency power outages. Centerpoint wants to sale electricity to make money and by installing the smart meters it will eliminate a lot of meter reading. Also I would look for this to happen with gas distribution meters in the future also.The meter is owned by CenterPoint, they could just shut the juice off but if I know CenterPoint they will just go on to the next person and leave them alone for a while. Also CenterPoint will not allow us to carry firearms in our company trucks, I do think they need to adjust that policy because they lost a lineman a couple of years ago who was robbed and shot while making a call. Of course in this case you just leave that is what I would have done, but once you get the smart meter you will not see the electric man at your house unless the meter needs repairing. Your humble CenterPoint servant:)
not illegal to buy.
illegal to run full time in a non-emergency
“I cannot understand why there is this fear of the smart meter.”
The smart meter is the camel’s nose under the tent. We have them ( both gas and electricity). The electric meter is the most likely to invade your privacy. Now we are being “admonished” with some miniscule financial inducement to “join” the utility’s program to conserve by allowing them to control our air conditioning equipment. They have to install some sort of transponder on the equipment that would allow them to turn it off at will. We have ignored them, but like the woman in the story, who was told “they will be back when she is not home,” they will continue to go at this “voluntarily” but when that doesn’t achieve the desired compliance, they will get the legislature to pass a law abrogating our right to privacy because it’s good for the environment, or the children, or some other equally nonsensically insane ploy.
Carrying a gun will get you fired quicker then you can spell gun when reading meters.
You may carry mace to use against dogs but that is it.
He better keep his lips zipped
Anyone want to participate in a pool re how long it will be before a rock goes through that imbecile's roof?
I spent several summers trying to end calls from the power company to my elderly parents. They were threatening them with fines if they used their A/C between certain hours. My parents don’t even HAVE a smart meter on the electricity, only on the gas. My parents were so upset by these calls, and they need to stay cool due to health issues.
You see, the power line sends fresh electrons through the meter to each of your lamps and appliances.
Now, every lamp or appliance uses its electrons in a slightly different way, and this ends up discoloring them uniquely for each appliance.
Here’s what the Electricity Ministry doesn’t want you to know: The Smart Meter examines the used electrons coming back to it from all of your appliances, and sorts them by color. Therefore, it knows what you’ve been doing with your electrons, and tattles on you about it to the Ministry.
“a company touting the “awesomeness” of smart meters,’
The technology of security is increasing almost exponentially. Look at drones. What will they be like in ten years? If you own a large estate, there will probably be drones available for your personal security use that fly 24/7. Then there will be the risk of your droned being hacked. So new drone anti-hacking security will be needed.
And that’s just one scenario.
Companies have engineers, researchers, scientists, working on these things 24/7. Why? because there’s good money to be made. I’m all for that, but serious constitutional issues will arise.
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