NJ Bills for Smart Meter Choice

There are a number of reasons why people might want to opt out of smart meters.

The 2017 documentary Take Back Your Power sheds lights on a variety of concerns related to smart meters including, privacy/surveillance, health, public safety, expense, regulatory capture and environmental impacts.

Opt out of Smart Meters/Take Back Your Power

But the most immediate concern for many relates to the insidious health impacts of this technology.

EMF Injury: The Next Generation of Silenced Sufferers

Within a few weeks of the installation of smart water meters, Diane was experiencing debilitating symptoms that drew the attention of neighbors in her building. She had started losing her hair and was visibly ill. One of them pointed out a closet with a number of newly installed smart water meters about 55 feet from her condo and suggested that they might be playing a role in her symptoms.

That’s when she started documenting. And doing her own research.

…Sadly, Diane’s predicament is not an isolated one. A growing body of research links EMFs from smart meters to a variety of adverse health impacts as well as public safety, privacy and environmental concerns.

…Government and regulatory agencies have no problem asking citizens to make considerable sacrifices to protect the vulnerable when it comes to vaccine requirements, mask mandates, lockdowns and other often ineffective and oppressive public health measures. But the vulnerable are readily dismissed and cast aside when they interfere with industry agendas. (The truth is, we’re all dismissed. The FDA would sooner override informed consent than slow down the path of product development.)

Legitimizing EMF sensitivity, or eletromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), would threaten big plans for 15-minute cities and Agenda 2030. And these plans have been in the works for decades.

Because of these and other concerns, more and more people are opting out of smart meters. However, PSE&G and other power companies require you to pay an additional $12-15/month if you opt out (and about $45 to remove a smart meter if you already had one installed).

Fortunately, some NJ legislators seek to change that and ensure the New Jerseyans have the ability to opt out without fees or penalties.

• A4786 - Prohibits public utilities from charging smart meter opt-out fees.

This bill prohibits public utilities in this State from charging or collecting an opt-out fee to persons that have chosen not to have a smart meter installed in their places of residence. Under the bill, a “smart meter” is defined as a metering device that employs smart meter technology to measure, record, and transmit utility usage data to both a public utility and a customer for billing and other purposes. “Smart meter” includes a basic hourly interval meter, a meter with one-way communication, and a real-time meter with built-in, two-way communication capable of recording and transmitting instantaneous utility usage data. It is the sponsor’s intent to help utility customers control their utility costs by exempting them from the fee charged by utilities for opting out of smart meter installation. Currently, residential customers are required to either agree to install a smart meter or pay a monthly fee to keep their analog meter. Utility customers have been experiencing larger and larger bills as companies save money by reducing employee costs. It is the sponsor’s intent that that this legislation will promote choice in selecting a meter and save ratepayers money if they choose to keep an analog meter.

• A3524/S2091 - Provides electric public utility customers’ right to decline installation of smart meter under certain circumstances.

This bill prohibits an electric public utility (utility) from installing a “smart meter,” as that term is defined in the bill, at a customer’s premises prior to the utility providing written notice to the customer, in a manner determined by the Board of Public Utilities, no less than 90 days prior to the scheduled installation of a smart meter. The bill allows a utility customer to decline the utility’s request to install a smart meter at the customer’s premises for the duration of the customer’s account with the utility. If a utility customer elects to decline having a smart meter installed at the customer’s premises within 30 days of receiving written notice from the utility, the utility is not to assess the customer a fee, penalty, or service charge for that decision for the duration of the customer’s account. If a utility customer elects to decline having a smart meter installed at the customer’s premises after 30 days but within 90 days of receiving written notice from the utility, the utility is not to assess the customer a fee, penalty, or service charge of more than $100 for that decision for the duration of the customer’s account.

It’s a start. If you support these measures, please reach out to your legislators and let them know.

But, even if in the absence of fees or penalties, many people who live in condos and multiple unit housing are subjected to EMF exposure from all of the other meters in their housing complexes when they opt out.

This has been the case for Diane Grossi, who now suffers debilitating symptoms linked to EMFs despite opting out herself.

There are 16 housing units in her building, each requiring a separate water, gas and electric meter. Diane and two other residents refused all three smart meters, but as of January 10 there are 10 electric utility meters below the windows of her living space and another wall of electric gas meters on the exterior of a neighboring condo in addition to the closet with electric water meters.

She is subject to the radiation emanating from ALL of these meters despite the fact that she declined to get a smart meter for her own unit.

“I have not slept in my bedroom since the meters were installed,” she says.

Imagine paying a monthly fee only to be subjected to EMF toxicity from the smart meters of every other unit in your building.

A PSEG employee I spoke with recently acknowledged the absurdity of these situations and agrees there needs to be a better solution. The only people he’s aware of who are not subjected to fees are people with medical conditions that require them to be on oxygen. (Does anyone know if smart meters interfere with the machinery or have any other idea as to why this would be the sole exception?)

Meanwhile, let’s shine some light on this issue and see what kind of progress we can make! Legislators seem to be paying at least some attention.