PG&E Smart Meter CPUC Public Hearing on Wireless Radiation Risks Part 1

Maybe it was a slow news day and there was nothing else to report on in the middle of the summer doldrums, but here it was in the online version of the daily fish wrap.[1] The California Public Utilities commission was holding a public hearing on customer complaints over the risk of wireless radiation from smart meters July 29th in San Francisco.

“We’re just flooding our environment with electromagnetic radiation. And we’re doing it without understanding the potential health consequences of that deluge,” alleged Josh Hart one of the speakers at the hearing. This is a guy who told the reporter he also sold his cell phone over his worries about radiation.

OK! OK! I know this is California and all things wacky and wonderful start here. Thankfully for the rest of the country most of the wacky ideas just mellow out after a while as people move on the next thing they can protest about. In my view this one, this week, ranks right up there with the protesters in Berkeley covering themselves with oil as they picket the site of a new $500 million biotechnology lab being built at UC-Berkeley because the largest donor for the construction project is BP.

Is this radiation complaint a big concern?

Well, considering that only 16 people turned out for the CPUC public hearing on the topic all claiming they suffer from electro-hypersensitivity from cell phone towers and other wireless technologies I suggest not. The hearing examiner who gets paid to listen to such drivel all day on every topic sat patiently and let the folks talk their allotted time.
But, of course, there is also politics in this.

The CPUC has an ongoing inquiry into the smart meter program after PG&E got hammered by customers over utility bill spikes after their smart meters were installed. Several communities including San Francisco and Marin County have also petitioned the Commission to halt smart meter installations until the full inquiry is completed, but the CPUC has denied this request. But they have a different issue in that both want to create their own community aggregation program to enable residents to buy more renewable energy from sources other than PG&E under the state law which allows it.

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Israel, Jerusalem,
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