January 12, 2016
Customer sues SMUD over smart meter opt out charges: wanted to avoid microwave and RF radiation from SMUD smart electric meters
Smart Citizens (safe electric meter advocates) in the citizens group Sacramento Smart Meter Awareness (SSMA) won a major victory in March, 2013 when the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) approved a resolution allowing some customers to have their smart electric meter removed from their home and replaced with an analog electric meter. This action was due to months of non-stop pressure from customers, many of whom had been injured by smart meter radiation from SMUD smart electric meters. Due to citizen pressure SMUD became the first municipal utility in the country to allow customers an analog meter option.
The same pursuit of the international smart meter agenda and lack of concern for the health and safety of its consumers remained after the Board of Directors approve Resolution 13-03-08. In violation of the spirit and intent of the opt out policy SMUD has concealed this policy from its customers and has never told them about it. (Other than an obscure page on the SMUD website that you would have to know existed or would have to be looking for to find, and which very few customers ever find.) The opt out policy and analog meter option remain SMUD’s Big Secret.
As a result Smart Citizens estimate that over 99% of SMUD customers are not aware of this program and option. We have asked the Board of Directors many times, at meetings and in writing, to fully notify customers but they have refused. They say they do not want to publicize a certain group’s program, but any Resolution approved by the SMUD Board of Directors is in fact a SMUD program.
This deception and concealment has characterized SMUD’s entire smart grid / smart meter / advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) program from the start. Where there should be transparency, openness, and policies that serve the public interest there is concealment, deception, and bad public policy.
This site will track the efforts of the Smart Citizens and SSMA to bring about policy changes at SMUD to enable customers to make fully informed choices and to lead to better public policy from the consumer’s point of view. We hope you enjoy this site and appreciate any constructive criticism or content you’d like to share.
