If there is a meter to gauge the hatred of British Columbians for the enforced installation of residential "smart meters", the government seems completely unaware of it.
A smart meter is a new form of power meter that uses computer technology to assess the rate of power consumption in your home. It knows when you turn your lights on and off, use your washing machine, watch your television, when you sleep and wake, when you go off to work or steal away on a vacation. It can identify and categorize the usage patterns of any electrical appliance plugged in to your residence. It also has the authority to completely shut off your power like a main breaker switch. Periodically, using a radio transmitter "less than five times [as powerful as] a running microwave oven" (National Renewal Energy Laboratory, Technical Report September 2011), it will transmit this information to any interested receiver.
In British Columbia, it is mandatory to have one of these things installed. Unlike other municipalities that employ smart meters, there is no opt-out program. If you try to alert BC Hydro (power utility) that you do not want a smart meter, they place you on a "delay list", which means that they will periodically contact you to sell you their product, until you either cave in or they arrive on your doorstep to use forcible means to install the meter.
That's right: installation technicians (not electricians) are carrying demolition equipment to cut through physical blocks, chains, and fences that people have erected on their property to prevent the installation of these devices.
So why does Hydro demand smart meters everywhere? A smart meter is a remote-controlled device, which means that a meter reader does not have to go onto private property to get a reading. This makes sense where smart meters have been installed in the favelas of Rio de Janiero, some of the most violent, drug-ridden neighbourhoods on the planet. Down there, military squads armed with machine guns escort the utility repairmen on their route (Bloomberg Businessweek, March 2012). So why does our government treat the suburbs and condominiums of British Columbia like Cidade de Deus? The answers are as hazy as the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery on 4/20 Day.
Perhaps the origin begins with David Emerson, the former Federal Liberal appointee with connections to British Columbia government, especially former Premier Campbell. Mr. Emerson is now a senior advisor and investor with CAI Capital Management. CAI owns and operates Corix, which received the uncontested contract from BC Hydro to install smart meters across the province.
Insider influence at the BC Legislature, is that what we are thinking? Nothing like, oh, say, the so-called BC Rail fiasco where high-ranking members of the Campbell government used inside knowledge to profit from the sale of the publicly-owned provincial railroad to private concerns. Nobody is saying that the creation of the smart meter program might finally make the bloated and cumbersome BC Hydro Corporation attractive enough to be broken apart and sold to private industry like BC Rail was. Since even our current Premier Christy Clark cannot deny enough her involvement in BC Rail, the Liberals must not be thinking that selling BC Hydro is even remotely possible. This is what we must believe.
Strange, too, that the US Federal Government had extensive funding in place to install smart meters all throughout the American States and Protectorates, yet recently they pulled all of that funding. Why not go for all those smart meters? Maybe the fact that the early-generation meters tend to double and triple reports of power usage was a factor (hang on to your utilities receipts!) . Maybe there's truth to the stores of people getting sick living near the powerful smart meter transmitters. Maybe the meters are just too expensive in the long run. Some articles maintain that smart meters have a life span of around ten years before they need to be repaired or replaced. Whatever the reason, the Americans aren't as bullish on smart meter technology as they once were.
This is leaving companies like Toshiba, Landis + Gyr, Echelon, and Elster Group (manufacturers of smart meters) with a massive overhead of unsold smart meters. So if the Americans aren't buying them, then they will go to South America instead. And Mexico, Central America, and that Other Columbia... BC. Places where the government is desperate for a buck and can be sold cheap goods for a healthy profit to insiders.
Bloomberg estimates that the sale of smart meters below the equator will be worth $15.2 billion by the end of the decade. That's some chunk of change, with each smart meter costing around $250 apiece.
But... BC Hydro claims the Corix meters cost $555 each (Norm Ryder, The Daily News, May 3, 2012). Is Corix double-charging us for the meters and pocketing the difference? We'd have to pose to David Emerson that question to get an answer. Or maybe query the post-Campbell survivors in the Liberal cabinet, the same Libs who negotiated with the Feds to introduce the HST tax in return for $1.25 billion in transfer funds (later the Liberals would claim only $1 billion, yet even so their budget failed to balance... ouch.) Yeah: the HST, just like BC Rail, the Fast Cat Ferries, now smart meters; all of these things share the commonality that they were imposed upon BC democracy without preamble or discussion. And light bulbs, lowly as they may be, let's not forget to add them to the list.
Democracy? Heil Hydro! There's your democracy for you.
The image was created from public domain art in Photoshop. See if you can spot the likeness to a famous historical figure! Hint: comedian John Cleese does a famous imitation in "Fawlty Towers" ("The Germans", 1975). Thanks to Cap'n Bob and Eranb for providing source imagery of a Corix-type smart meter and an Israeli stop sign hand.
Insider influence at the BC Legislature, is that what we are thinking? Nothing like, oh, say, the so-called BC Rail fiasco where high-ranking members of the Campbell government used inside knowledge to profit from the sale of the publicly-owned provincial railroad to private concerns. Nobody is saying that the creation of the smart meter program might finally make the bloated and cumbersome BC Hydro Corporation attractive enough to be broken apart and sold to private industry like BC Rail was. Since even our current Premier Christy Clark cannot deny enough her involvement in BC Rail, the Liberals must not be thinking that selling BC Hydro is even remotely possible. This is what we must believe.
Strange, too, that the US Federal Government had extensive funding in place to install smart meters all throughout the American States and Protectorates, yet recently they pulled all of that funding. Why not go for all those smart meters? Maybe the fact that the early-generation meters tend to double and triple reports of power usage was a factor (hang on to your utilities receipts!) . Maybe there's truth to the stores of people getting sick living near the powerful smart meter transmitters. Maybe the meters are just too expensive in the long run. Some articles maintain that smart meters have a life span of around ten years before they need to be repaired or replaced. Whatever the reason, the Americans aren't as bullish on smart meter technology as they once were.
This is leaving companies like Toshiba, Landis + Gyr, Echelon, and Elster Group (manufacturers of smart meters) with a massive overhead of unsold smart meters. So if the Americans aren't buying them, then they will go to South America instead. And Mexico, Central America, and that Other Columbia... BC. Places where the government is desperate for a buck and can be sold cheap goods for a healthy profit to insiders.
Bloomberg estimates that the sale of smart meters below the equator will be worth $15.2 billion by the end of the decade. That's some chunk of change, with each smart meter costing around $250 apiece.
But... BC Hydro claims the Corix meters cost $555 each (Norm Ryder, The Daily News, May 3, 2012). Is Corix double-charging us for the meters and pocketing the difference? We'd have to pose to David Emerson that question to get an answer. Or maybe query the post-Campbell survivors in the Liberal cabinet, the same Libs who negotiated with the Feds to introduce the HST tax in return for $1.25 billion in transfer funds (later the Liberals would claim only $1 billion, yet even so their budget failed to balance... ouch.) Yeah: the HST, just like BC Rail, the Fast Cat Ferries, now smart meters; all of these things share the commonality that they were imposed upon BC democracy without preamble or discussion. And light bulbs, lowly as they may be, let's not forget to add them to the list.
Democracy? Heil Hydro! There's your democracy for you.
The image was created from public domain art in Photoshop. See if you can spot the likeness to a famous historical figure! Hint: comedian John Cleese does a famous imitation in "Fawlty Towers" ("The Germans", 1975). Thanks to Cap'n Bob and Eranb for providing source imagery of a Corix-type smart meter and an Israeli stop sign hand.
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