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Opinion
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- Written by: Howard Glasser
As you may or may not know, the World Health Organization, after consideration of the large body of scientific evidence that now exists on Smart Meters, determined that wireless devices like Smart Meters pose a health hazard and risk of cancer, categorizing the radiation from such wireless devices as a Class 2B carcinogen. Some nuclear experts have said the radiation from Smart Meters is equivalent to 100 times the exposure of that emitted from a cell phone.
We should be grateful to the Lake County Board of Supervisors and to Lake County Counsel Anita Grant for maintaining a vigil on this matter and keeping public health and our county’s economy in the forefront of their decisions when weighing in on how to defend against PG&E’s position that if we want to opt out, we’ll have to pay for it and we give up our right to retain our perfectly fine working analog meters.
Thousands of reports have poured in statewide from people and their doctors after the installation of Smart Meters that are now linked to such deadly disorders as brain tumors, tinnitus, acoustic neuromas, childhood leukemia, neurodegenerative diseases, DNA damage and cognitive impairment. Smart Meter radiation also has been blamed for slowing motor skills, reducing learning ability, heating body tissue, lowering the immune system and damaging the blood-brain barrier that prevents toxins from entering the brain.
For PG&E, Smart Meters represent a gold mine in new fees and creative ways to charge for your current energy consumption in what they call time-of use-rates. Eventually, they’d like everyone connected to a grid that they could monitor and control from a central source which means that in our future, our appliances would be under the central control of the utility company. For understandable reasons, a lot of people take issue with this.
Then there’s the issue of vulnerability to hacking. This type of wireless system is susceptible to the most vicious of hacking crimes with the most devastating of consequences. A single hacker could bring down a large region of the country and that’s a terrorist nightmare waiting to happen.
And what of the millions of bits of personal data collected and stored on servers that could not possibly be secure enough to protect our rights to privacy? It’s not that we have something to hide or that we are guilty of anything. It’s the principle of a utility company owning this information and to whom it could become available and for what purpose.
This whole Smart Meter movement was thrust upon an unsuspecting citizenry and sold as something green and environmentally conscious while claims that it will ensure a cleaner environment cannot be substantiated. What we can be sure of is that a private power company will make a fortune and that many will be made sick and that we will once again fall prey to the greedy machinations of a corporation run amuck.
We have a chance now to stand up for Lake County and support our supervisors as well as the mayors of the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport that passed ordinances banning Smart Meter installations here though PG&E and the CPUC chose to ignore these bans and continued to install despite public rejection. More than 10 counties and 34 cities throughout California have demanded a halt to smart meter installations and more are considering taking action.
In a decision reached May 17 by the state of Maine’s Public Utilities Commission, Maine’s PUC upheld citizen’s rights to retain their existing analog meters and for a nominal charge. We in California have not been given that option because the decision making process has been corrupted by industry insiders who run the CPUC and write blank checks to companies like PG&E. That’s an outrage.
Be sure you’re at the Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting Sept. 13. Even if you’ve never gone to a public hearing before or spoken out in public, now’s the time to do it. The world’s what we make it. Take the leap. Your voice matters!
Howard Glasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
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- Written by: Bill and Carol Kenner
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- Written by: Rick Mayo
Thanks to the many citizens from around our local community and county who made our inaugural BBQ Cookout in Austin Park a success.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our many sponsors and supporters: Lake Pharmacy; Clearlake Police Department Association; Foods Etc; Safeway, Clearlake; Clearlake Recycle; Grocery Outlet-Clearlake; Spoil Me Rotten; KutsbyKieve; Girlfriends; Kevin Ness Jewelers; Cache Creek Apartments; Lakeshore Fire; Four Corners Building Supply; Tony Lopez; Tatonka Trading Posts; Holder Ford, Lakeport; Bruno’s Foods, Lakeport; Lakeview Market, Lucerne; Red & White Market, Clearlake Oaks; Fancy Paws Dog Grooming, Clearlake Oaks; and Hardester's Market & Hardware, Middletown.
Special thanks to Without-A-Net band who donated their time to perform some awesome songs and vocals, these guys and gal sure knew how to get our patrons dancing in the grass.
The raffle winners were: Karen Hamon, Lakeport, 27-inch tower fan; Regina Ales, Lakeport, 22.5 Roto Q Charcoal Grill; Karen Scott, Lower Lake, mobile utility cart, who was so excited she said, “First time I ever won!”; Audrey Barber, Clearlake, Ronco Rotisserie ShowTime Oven; and Aqeela Bakheit, Clearlake, the 18.5 Weber Charcoal Grill.
Special appreciation is given to Clearlake Police Department Volunteers in Policing (VIPs) personnel for assisting us with security.
Thank you to Mayor Joyce Overton and Vice Mayor Joey Luiz for your support and drawing some of the winning prize tickets and welcoming our NAACP State Conference Northern Area Director Delois Edwards from Sacramento and Tri-Cities branch.
Thanks also to Joe Harden coming out and taking some great photos for us.
Our freedom fund committee members and event volunteers who worked tirelessly to promote this event are as follows: Dr. John Zebelean, chairman; Bessie Bell, treasurer; Jim Swatts, first vice president; Robert Harrison, second vice president; Hiram Dukes, media; Tee Watts, media; Skip Wilson and Rick Mayo, president; culinary staff, James and Johnnie Black; event members, Tim Celli; Catherine Repetski and Marla Shaffer; volunteers, Dave Repetski and Meka Collins.
Our city public works personnel under the direction of Doug Herren did an awesome job cleaning up the facilities and offering their assistance.
Again, thank you, everyone.
Rick Mayo is president of the Lake County NAACP. He lives in Clearlake, Calif.
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- Written by: Dan Felperin
I couldn’t agree more. In these challenging economic/social times it is quite natural and understandable to be uncertain about the future, but scared? Come on!
We Americans have it better than the vast majority of the humans on the planet. The USA is arguably the world’s leader in quality of life (individual freedoms), innovation, etc.
In my considered opinion, the key to our national energy security is in personal responsibility embodied in a concept I am calling “concerted consumerism.”
If one believes that global economic prosperity is driven by consumer spending, then the concerted focus of that spending would provide a sustainable venue for “good” businesses (pro-community) to thrive and “bad” businesses (wanton multi-national corporations) to wither and die, a la Darwin.
Case in point: Why would the most democratic society on Earth choose to be “slaves” to (foreign) fossil fuel? When the real solution rests with our individual decisions to invest and support goods, products and services that extricate us from outside control and manipulation.
As of this writing, any person or business can invest their capital (or credit worthiness) into energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
With local community-based financing, positive cash flow is immediate. These renewable electrical systems lock-in utility rates, hedge inflation, “zero-out” net energy consumption over time, and provide the only sustainable way that we the people have at our disposal to leverage our energy investments for the highest perpetual rate of return using the existing grid infrastructure to our advantage all-the-while.
Now for transportation; I can remember waiting in (“odd/even”) gas lines in the 1970s when OPEC came up with their first oil embargo.
At that moment, I realized that we Americans could kick our oil dependency if we had the collective (concerted) will to do so.
I have personally made renewable energy investments in my own building infrastructures and continue to reap benefits everyday. I feel good about doing my part and being mostly energy independent.
But it’s not just me, there are literally thousands of other fellow citizens in California and elsewhere that are also doing it! And guess what, here come the plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles just in time.
With the surplus electricity I generate at my home and business, I am free to charge up my electric VW (HRBEE1). It won’t be much longer until one’s very own solar power plant will not only heat, cool and light home and business, but will also provide the sun fuel for their new electric transportation
(~98 percent Energy-Free).
When we collectively understand that our safe, secure and sustainable future starts today, the days ahead of us will be brighter ones! We have nothing to fear, but we better get started NOW.
Dan “the Solar Man” Felperin lives in Cobb, Calif.