Smart Meter Update
Good Afternoon,
This group is leading the advocacy on our smart meter legislation if you wanted to read their advice.
Best,
Julie del Sobral, General Counsel
Office of Senator Michael O. Moore
State House, Room 109B
Boston, MA 02133
617-722-1485 (phone)
617-722-1066 (fax)
From: Cece Doucette <MA4SafeTech@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2020 5:01 AM
To: DelSobral, Julie (SEN) <Julie.Delsobral@masenate.gov>
Subject: [External]: ACTION ALERT: Please Help Advance Massachusetts EMF Bills
Please Send a Quick Email -- 5 Minutes
Help is appreciated from everyone,
not just Massachusetts stakeholders
We are very grateful that even as our legislators are working over-time to address the pandemic and racial justice, they have made it a priority to advance two of the Massachusetts EMF bills.
One bill gives the right to choose no-fee non-radiation-emitting utility meters. The other forms a commission to investigate the whole wireless radiation issue.
Our progress, in large part, is due to those who took a moment to provide testimony for the first round -- thank you!
As the bills pass from one committee to the next though, we start with a clean slate so testimony is once again required.
How to Help
Details on each bill are given below, but here's a quick way to help -- 5 minutes:
1. Start a new email with the Subject line, "In Support of S. 129 and S. 1988".
2. Copy and paste the following addresses into the To: field (note, we included MA4SafeTech@gmail.com too so we have record of what's coming in):
Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov; Cindy.Friedman@masenate.gov; Jason.Lewis@masenate.gov; Mike.Barrett@masenate.gov; Joseph.Boncore@masenate.gov; Michael.Brady@masenate.gov; Barry.Finegold@masenate.gov; Nick.Collins@masenate.gov; Anne.Gobi@masenate.gov; Adam.Hinds@masenate.gov; Patricia.Jehlen@masenate.gov; Eric.Lesser@masenate.gov; Joan.Lovely@masenate.gov; Michael.Moore@masenate.gov; Mike.Rush@masenate.gov; Patrick.OConnor@masenate.gov; Ryan.Fattman@masenate.gov; Dean.Tran@masenate.gov; Julian.Cyr@masenate.gov; Tackey.Chan@mahouse.gov; Thomas.golden@mahouse.gov; Katherine.Holahan@mass.gov; MA4SafeTech@gmail.com;
3. Copy/paste in the following suggested message, but by all means feel free to write your own or resend to this new group if you submitted last time:
Massachusetts is poised to join New Hampshire and Oregon as the third state to urgently pass legislation to investigate the health and environmental impact of today’s wireless technology.
Even during this pandemic, the wireless industry is relentlessly forcing toxic wireless radiation on our homes via utility "smart" meters, wi-fi systems in our schools, and 4G+/5G small cell antennas outside our homes and offices.
They are also providing toxic wireless devices to our children, with no safety instructions or adapters to hard-wire.
We cannot let industry take control from our families and municipalities any longer. Please, expedite passage of S. 129 Resolve relative to disclosure of radio frequency notifications and S. 1988 An Act relative to utilities, smart meters, and ratepayers’ rights.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
4. Sign with your full name (and any credentials you wish to include), address and phone number. These are required to enter your statement into the public record.
5. Please ask others to help too, we must use our collective voices if we expect to get to safe technology. All emails should be sent by Friday, July 17th at the latest. Thank you!
The Smart Meter Choice Bill
Feel free to learn more about this bill below, and/or copy any of this into your own statement (thank you to Helen, Patricia, Jean, Ula, Ruth and Rebecca for your expertise!):
The pandemic has reinforced the concept that medically vulnerable residents deserve, and are entitled to, protection of their health and well-being by society at large.
Decision-makers are often in the position of having to translate that expectation into guidance and specific actions, including public policy.
While the pandemic response in MA has been extraordinary, protection of medically vulnerable residents has been overlooked in the case of the very basic need to provide safe and reliable electric, gas, and water service for all. Utilities, municipalities, and the MA Department of Public Utilities (DPU) have all fallen short.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee may not be aware that a significant number of Massachusetts residents experienced adverse health effects immediately after installation of wireless utility meters on their homes.
Symptoms include headaches, sleeplessness, cognitive and memory problems, problems with balance, irregular heartbeats and intermittent tremor; these symptoms can be disabling.
Children experience problems with anxiety, insomnia, attention, memory and learning.
Legislators should know recent research has confirmed the medical diagnosis of sensitivity to EMF and its impact on the brain, links to a number of other serious medical conditions, and increasing neurological damage over time, especially for women.
The phenomenon is well known throughout the country, and in other states an opt-out is often provided by the public utility commission or sometimes by the legislature as Vermont did.
As part of its Grid Modernization Order 12-76B, the Massachusetts DPU required an opt-out from the proposed smart meter program. However, the order addressed only new AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) meters but did not address the thousands of wireless AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) meters already in service or installed after the order.
As allowed under the order, National Grid filed a punitive tariff (MA DPU 13-83) for opt-out fees to cover both one-time installation charges and monthly manual reading service charges for both gas and electric meters.
These fees are a financial burden to customers, some of whom become too sick from the meters to work. Imposing a surcharge for an accommodation required because of a medical condition is discriminatory.
The health issues are the same for the AMR as for the AMI water meters but these customers have no choice for safe technology.
Furthermore, MA DPU 12-76B only applies to customers of investor-owned utilities, leaving municipal customers without a choice.
Many of the customers who continue to experience adverse health effects related to their wireless meters have Eversource AMR meters or municipal wireless water meters with no choice to opt out.
As recently as July 2, 2020, the DPU issued the new Order 20-69 which will investigate time of use applications for electric vehicle customers by possibly working with existing AMR wireless meters.
The order directs utilities to "discuss whether the Department should require all new service meters to be capable of providing advanced meter functionality when installed to replace an existing meter that reaches the end of its useful life or otherwise needs to be replaced."
The DPU appears to be moving in the direction of increased deployment of toxic wireless electric meters, and there is no mention in Order 20-69 of opt-outs to accommodate medically vulnerable customers or those who prefer a non-radiation emitting meter.
Thus the pressing need to enact S. 1988 An Act relative to utilities, smart meters, and ratepayers’ rights to protect the public. This bill will allow the ratepayer to choose what type of utility meters to have installed on one's property and to do so without paying punitive fees.
S. 1988 will provide an immediate lifeline for customers who are sheltering at home with wireless utility meters that cause them adverse health effects. Please pass this bill without delay.
Sincere thanks to Senator Moore for listening to constituents and sponsoring this bill, to Senator Barrett and Representative Golden for seeing the bill reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, to Senator Tran of this Committee for co-sponsoring, and to the additional co-sponsors for supporting this bill.
The EMF Commission Bill
Feel free to learn more about this bill below, and/or copy any of this into your own statement:
S. 129 Resolve relative to disclosure of radio frequency notifications began as a requirement that the product safety warnings buried in the legal fine print for wireless devices be clearly identified on the packaging.
But the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure investigated and went further, aiming to create a special commission to research the impact of electromagnetic (EMR) and radiofrequency (RFR) radiation on consumer protection, public health, and technology in the Commonwealth and to produce a report to guide public policy going forward.
This bill is modeled after an ordinance in Berkeley, California which was unanimously passed to give the public the right to know there are risks with wireless technology.
Three times the wireless industry sued Berkeley, all the way to the Supreme Court. Three times the industry lost.
In this period of ever-expanding dependence on technology, customers should be given the right to know the warnings and be provided with education to make safe technology choices.
New Hampshire and Oregon also see the urgency and quickly passed bills into law. Both states are actively investigating.
Last month the City of Boston, which is now inundated with toxic small cells for 4G+/5G and the Internet of Thing (IoT), filed a submission to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stating, “Boston believes that the concerns of the public are real and that the Commission has done a disservice to itself, local government, consumers, and even the wireless industry in failing to understand and respond to the broadly shared mistrust of the safety of RF emissions.”
Wireless radiation is also an environmental justice issue. National Grid targeted Worcester for their toxic smart grid pilot program. Verizon targeted Brockton as a 5G test city while Sprint enticed Brockton high school students with free smartphones and tablets.
We are experiencing explosive growth in communications infrastructure that has never been tested for biological safety. It is essential that the most up-to-date science regarding the potential health effects of EMR and RFR guide public policy.
S. 129 paves the way for this critical work to begin, please pass this bill immediately.
Sincere gratitude to Senator Cyr for introducing this resolve, to Senator Feeney and Representative Chan for seeing the bill reported out favorably by the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure, and to Senators Friedman, Lovely, Moore and Tran of this Committee for co-sponsoring this resolve, as well as to the additional co-sponsors who have investigated the wireless issues and signed on.
Thank you for sending in support for these safe technology bills!
Warm regards,
Cece & The MA for Safe Technology Team
https://www.ma4safetech.org/
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