States Trying To Legislatively Kick "Smart" Meters To The Curb Now Include Montana

By B.N. Frank

Since tens of millions of utility “Smart” Meters have been installed in the U.S. and around the world, it’s likely that they are already on your home and throughout your community.

Unfortunately, these types of meters can cause:

Appliances to malfunction and break
Fires and explosions
Measurement Errors and inflated bills
New and/or increased health issues due to radiation emissions and exposure
New and/or increased environmental issues due to radiation emissions and exposure

Utility “Smart” Meters also seem to have been deliberately designed so they would have to be replaced frequently. Costs for this are usually passed on to customers in the form of rate increases.

Last but not least, utility “Smart” Meters are associated with cybersecurity risks and they violate our right to privacy.

Because of all of this, legislation has been introduced in various U.S. communities and states attempting to stop their installation and/or allow customers to “opt out.” This now includes Montana.

From the Tenth Amendment Center:

A bill introduced in the Montana House would restrict the sharing of “smart meter” data and set the stage to allow utility customers to opt out of the technology altogether. Passage of this bill would protect privacy, and it would take a step toward blocking a federal program in effect.

[…]

The privacy issues aren’t merely theoretical. According to information obtained by the California ACLU, utility companies in the state have disclosed information gathered by smart meters on thousands of customers. San Diego Gas and Electric alone disclosed data on more than 4,000 customers. The vast majority of disclosures were in response to subpoenas by government agencies “often in drug enforcement cases or efforts to find specific individuals,” according to SFGate.

“Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network watchdog group, said the sheer number of data disclosures made by SDG&E raised the possibility that government agencies wanted to sift through large amounts of data looking for patterns, rather than conducting targeted investigations.”

A documentary about all the issues associated with “Smart” Meters was produced in 2013 and re-edited and released in 2017. It is free to watch online.