Salt River Project (SRP), local provider of electricity to the metropolitan Phoenix area has gone begging to the Federal Government for nearly $80 million to deploy "smart" meters & a meter data management system, a secure intelligent system integration project, and for a study to assess the potential for underground carbon sequestration.
I don't want to be an alarmist on the topic of "smart" meters. I understand and support the move to a more efficient way to measure a customers use of electricty because, as a Capitalist, more efficient delivery of goods and services should bring prices down but since utilities are actually monopolies in their respective areas, it doesn't. I understand and wholeheartedly endorse the use of technology to make our electrical grid more secure against any and all threats although no one has yet invented a way of protecting us all from the ultimate threat of Electromagnetic Discharge in the unfortunate event of an airbust nuclear attack.
BUT, when I hear certain politicians (President Obama) talk about the concept that smart meters will ultimately (someday) be capable of regulating our electric usage, that concerns me. I don't want the USA to become a country where the government tells an individual that they only have a certain allotment of energy. If a person has the means to pay for something (legal) and is willing to do so, then leave them alone! Yes, even algore and his Tennessee mansion (which uses thousands of times the amount of energy of a typical Tennesse home - yes, he's a hypocrit for telling everyone else to use less but I don't think he's stiffing the power company).
And, since this is almost exclusively predicated upon reducing carbon in our atmosphere, even though it is NOT a pollutant, which in turn is based almost exclusively on the fear of global warming (in spite of the fact that the planet has NOT warmed in the last decade, and in spite of history showing that warm periods are better for humans and all living things), I can't get behind the effort.
I don't want to be an alarmist on the topic of "smart" meters. I understand and support the move to a more efficient way to measure a customers use of electricty because, as a Capitalist, more efficient delivery of goods and services should bring prices down but since utilities are actually monopolies in their respective areas, it doesn't. I understand and wholeheartedly endorse the use of technology to make our electrical grid more secure against any and all threats although no one has yet invented a way of protecting us all from the ultimate threat of Electromagnetic Discharge in the unfortunate event of an airbust nuclear attack.
BUT, when I hear certain politicians (President Obama) talk about the concept that smart meters will ultimately (someday) be capable of regulating our electric usage, that concerns me. I don't want the USA to become a country where the government tells an individual that they only have a certain allotment of energy. If a person has the means to pay for something (legal) and is willing to do so, then leave them alone! Yes, even algore and his Tennessee mansion (which uses thousands of times the amount of energy of a typical Tennesse home - yes, he's a hypocrit for telling everyone else to use less but I don't think he's stiffing the power company).
And, since this is almost exclusively predicated upon reducing carbon in our atmosphere, even though it is NOT a pollutant, which in turn is based almost exclusively on the fear of global warming (in spite of the fact that the planet has NOT warmed in the last decade, and in spite of history showing that warm periods are better for humans and all living things), I can't get behind the effort.
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