For my first post I'll recount what's going on with my home state of Vermont.
You know, we used to have a real nice arrangement up here when I was a kid. People were largely free to find their own way and do their own thing as long as they didn't annoy the neighbors too much. Then, in the 60's the liberals down in Mass and NY discovered our "pastoral paradise" and began flooding up here to escape the rat race in the big cities.
Of course, being liberals they took one look at how we conducted our affairs and immediately decided we "hicks" didn't know what we were doing. Further, they assigned to themselves the authority to correct our mistakes, whether we wanted them "fixed" or not; regardless of if they were even mistakes in the first place. Being largely a conservative populace and traditional, decent folks, we allowed them to infiltrate our local and state governments. They seemed sincere, and besides, true conservatives don't have that much interest in regulating their neighbors, telling them what they can/can't do.
Decades later, the progressives are so entrenched that we may never return to common sense in governance in my lifetime. This is the latest in the advancement of the Liberal/Progressive "we know what's best" agenda:
SMART METERS
The further encroachment of government
and bureaucracy on our private lives and personal liberties has taken
it's next big step. The so-called “Smart Grid” system for
efficient management of our electrical usage has taken the next step
with the installation of “Smart Meters” in the Burlington area,
with the intention of installation proceeding state wide over the
next few years.
For those who don't already know,
“Smart Meters” are replacements for the standard mechanical
dial-type electrical meters we already have on our homes and power
poles. Currently, workers from the utility companies make a circuit
of a service area and note the readings of the meters, calculate our
energy usage for the previous month and send us our billing
statement. With these new meters, there will be no need for the
workers to stop and read the meter. These meters will send the
information wirelessly to the technician at the roadside, or to a
central data site. These meters will also monitor your energy usage,
supposedly to give businesses and individuals “the information they
need to reduce their energy usage and their costs”.
The idea is that the combination of
“Smart Meters” and the “Smart Grid” will enable electricity
providers to more efficiently manage delivery and avoid the risk of
grid failure (blackouts and brownouts) during high-demand periods.
Sounds good so far, right?
Here's the part that has worms crawling
out of it. This same technology will also allow utilities and
different departments of state government access to records of your
personal lives; how much power you use & when, potentially
giving them the ability to limit your usage in the name of the public
good.
Here's how it would work: Let's say
the Dept. of Natural Resources or the PSB has adopted standards for
what is considered “sustainable” energy use. The ability to
monitor individuals' energy usage will allow them to isolate those
who are using more than their “fair share”. The first
knowledge you would have of such monitoring would be the “friendly
reminder” you receive in the mail from the State alerting you to
the situation: “Dear <your name here>, Our records indicate
that your energy usage is much higher than the average for your area.
As part of our on-going effort to ensure the availability of power
for all Vermonters, and to help you manage your energy usage and
reduce your costs, we have included a list of several steps you can
take to reduce your consumption of energy and reduce your utility
bills. Following these steps will help us ensure that we can
continue to meet the power needs of all. Thank you for your
cooperation. Signed, <your friendly government bureaucrat>”.
Time goes on. You decide for yourself
that you want to keep your home at a comfortable 68 in August. You want to be
comfortable and besides, it's your money and you can afford it, right? This would lead
to a second, likely much less friendly notice from your friends in
government requiring you to comply with their energy conservation
mandates. After all, you don't
have the right to use more power than your neighbors. THEY are
cooperating; THEY are doing their part to ensure that everyone else
has electricity; THEY aren't being selfish and greedy. You are given
a set deadline by which time you are to bring your consumption
with-in the proscribed guidelines.
Well, now. You
aren't going to stand for this. You come from a long line of
native-born Vermonters. No one has the right to decide for you what
you can and can not buy with your own money, or how well you are to
be allowed to live, or how comfortable you can be in your own home.
We're not in the middle of WWII. There's not been any passage of a
rationing law.
You
decide: “Here's mud in your eye! It's my life and my home and I'll
live as well as I want and can afford.” You don't send this
response (you're not a complete
idiot). You simply make the decision to ignore the illegal demands
of the state.
Then a
few weeks later a curious thing happens. Sometime around the end of
the 3rd
week of the month, your power goes out! You contact your utility
company and, after getting the runaround for several minutes, it is
finally admitted that the decision to cut you off was made at the
order of the government (the utility itself doesn't mind how much
energy you use, as long as you pay your bill) in response to your
refusal to abide by their earlier demands.(A second alternative to the above is that the State will impose a fee for "over consumption" similar to the fee they want to impose on Vermont Yankee. This revenue wouldn't go to the utility, it would go into the same "green energy" fund the extorted monies from VY ends up in, to help pay for even more government regulation and "green initiatives" to offset the social impact of greedy energy hogs like yourself. Actually, given the State's hunger for money and power, this alternative seems the more likely of the two).
You can avoid this
invasion (for a while) by paying a fee in order to be “allowed”
to keep your mechanical meter. Doesn't sound so good now, does it?
On a macro level,
control of the grid without providing for more electricity generation
or increased capacity will inevitably lead to rationing in other
ways. Let's say it's July/August and energy usage is forecast to be
exceptionally heavy. In order to prevent problems from occurring the
government (through the utility) needs to prioritize energy
availability and usage, most likely giving greater weight to
population and industrial centers and to public infrastructure. To
accomplish this they would have to restrict energy availability to
the more rural and remote areas in favor of “essential needs”.
Anyone care to wager on which side of the equation we in the Kingdom
would find ourselves? Also, don't forget that when the merger deal
and sale of Vermont's two biggest utilities to a Canadian consortium
goes through (and it will go through) any influence of localities
will have been eliminated. Yell and scream all you want, our market
is too small to matter when balanced against the much bigger markets
of Boston, NYC, and other metro areas.
Some of you may
decide to go “off grid” and install alternative personal energy
generation stations such as solar and wind. If you've got the cash,
do it fast. I have no doubt that if it becomes a big enough issue,
the State will quickly issue regulations requiring that any such
personal power generation stations be tied into the grid, which will
give them the ability to not just regulate your energy usage, but to
also confiscate some of the power you generate when the State has
“need” of it.
This isn't just a concern with my little state of Vermont. The "smart grid" electricity management systems are being promoted and installed nation wide. Along with the concurrent push for "Smart Growth" urban/suburban/residential development policies (see: Agenda 21), this all seems to me an ill omen for the future of individual liberty and property rights.
It won't happen all
at once, or even in the space of a year or two, but don't doubt that
“Big Brother” is beginning to flex his muscles. Get back to me
if 5 or 10yrs and tell me how wrong I was.
I see you basically submitted this to the local paper and I've heard some comments on it ranging from "he's mostly correct" to "he's a right wing conspiracy theorist nut case." For those that might be inclined to think that something like this could ever happen, please think again.
ReplyDeleteIn the case Wikard v Fulburn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn) the Supreme Court ordered that a farmer, Filburn, had to destroy wheat he'd grown for use on his farm because it violated a law specifying the amount of wheat a farmer could grow, the intent being to control prices during the Great Depression. Why the government would want to keep prices high when there is high unemployment and folks don't have a lot of money, I'm not quite sure. At any rate, the thinking of the Court was that if he was growing extra wheat it reduced the amount he would have to buy, apparently to feed his chickens, and because wheat is traded nationally it was affecting interstate commerce.
It is a pretty small step from this thinking to knowing that the government can and likely will set a limit on the amount of power an individual, family or company can access and punish them if they exceed that quota. Likewise it is pretty obvious they would have no qualms about forcing an individual to give up any power they generate on their own property. This is an exact parallel to the case noted above. I can even see this happening even without SMART meters and grids.
As the Court said in a later case (Gonzales vs Raich): "Wickard thus establishes that Congress can regulate purely intrastate activity that is not itself 'commercial', in that it is not produced for sale, if it concludes that failure to regulate that class of activity would undercut the regulation of the interstate market in that commodity."
I see there is a long article in the Caledonian today on the smart meters and the growing opposition to them. Two columns the whole length of the page. Most of the resistance is due to health concerns with lesser mention made on issues of privacy, security and accuracy.
ReplyDeleteI've read the same questions about the supposed risk of the radiation. As I understand it, the radiation from the meters is equivalent to that of a cell phone or microwave. Unless you sleep with your head on the meter, it's not a serious health risk unless there is some genetic sensitivity.
DeleteThe questions of whether the signal is vulnerable to being "read" by someone with a cheap scanner, thus being potentially allowing would-be thieves to determine who is and is not home should be of a more immediate concern.