Burlington’s Smart Grid Voters Approved the Bond Vote on June 28th which will fund “half” of the $13.5 million “upgrade” to the city’s electrical system. Out of the 10’s of thousands of “should-be” Burlington voters, about 3000 decided to vote. The “win” was anything but a land slide – 1,808 yeas to 1,176, nays. Ward 7 was the only sector of Burlington voters who came out in numbers opposing the measure 387-264. Many of the working class people still don’t know what a Smart Meter is, they will come home from work one day to a brand new sparkly radiating “Smart” meter, no need to ask the residents, the vote has been WON!
As in other cities around the country Smart Meters will be forced on the public. Public service commissioner Elizabeth Miller has said Vermont will implement an Opt-Out policy, details are yet to be revealed. Most likely it will be a “Pay to Opt-Out” policy as they have done in California. It seems that the Smart Grid’s motto is: “Your either with us or your against us.”
It is impressive that Radio Frequency Smart Meters have just been classified as possibly cancer causing by The World Health Organization, and here we are ready to amp-up our already high exposure to more Radio Frequency Microwaves.
As I have stated in my Sample Letter to VT Public Service Board, even if people choose to opt-out, like the 1,176 voters who voted against this bond, they still will not be able to avoid RF meter exposure. Many people live in apartment building where the meters are grouped together at the entry ways, in such scenarios these RF meters have even been documented by the Sage Reports to exceed FCC regulations. These people who don’t wish to expose themselves to the radio & microwaves from RF meters will also be exposed to this radiation in the workplace and in public places.
Contact your representative and the VT Public Service Board, use the sample letter above as a template if you like. New Technology that doesn’t have regulations specifically made for it, needs a moratorium. FCC regulations were set up to regulate THERMAL exposure of wireless tech and nothing more. “They” once thought that X-Rays were safe too… This could be one of the biggest mistakes of “Modern Civilized Society” I guess it will be an experiment “we” will test on ourselves.
Burlington, Vermont – June 28, 2011 Burlington voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide whether the city should invest in smart grid technology. Proponents say installing smart meters on homes and businesses would improve energy efficiency, help stabilize rates and create a more reliable distribution system. Residents are being asked to fund $7 million of the project. The other 50 percent would be funded through a U.S. Department of Energy grant. However some residents do have concerns with the technology. “There are a lot of questions I have about that,” Burlington resident Linda Chagnon says. “The safety of it, the security of it, the cost of it, the privacy. That’s key, the privacy. I just don’t like a new technology pushed on me in my own home.” Polls are open from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Keagan Harsha – WCAX News
SANTA FE, N.M., June 26 (Reuters)… The Las Conchas Fire flared early Sunday afternoon around 12 miles southwest of Los Alamos, charring about 3,500 acres and endangering the nation’s nuclear weapons laboratory and its surrounding communities, said Lawrence Lujan, a spokesman for the Santa Fe National Forest.
“We have homes and we have the labs, so it’s a very, very big concern, not only locally but nationally and globally,” Lujan said. “This fire is very complex. We have a national type one team coming in because of the nature of the fire.”
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has ordered the New Mexico National Guard to Los Alamos to provide support for the ongoing efforts to protect lives, property and critical infrastructure threatened by the fire.
Water broke through an inflatable dam around the perimeter of the Ft. Calhoun plant Sunday morning and ran into the main electrical transformers, forcing plant operators to switch to backup generators.
The Ft. Calhoun station is on the Missouri River bank in Blair, about 20 miles north of Omaha. A machine working at the plant poked a hole in the inflatable dam, the Iowa Independent newspaper reported
Although Ft. Calhoun was shut down in April, the electrical system at the plant must operate to cool both the reactor and spent fuel, the Independent said.
Ken Nolan, the Coordinator of Burlington Electric’s portion of the Smart Grid Project, admitted Thursday that ratepayers will not see energy savings or lower rates under the new grid/meter system.
“We have been very careful not to tell customers that they’re going to save energy from this technology,” said Nolan, who is also BED’s Manager of Power Resources.
The press conference, held on June 23rd at BED’s location on Pine Street, was an attempt to address concerns about the Smart Grid/Smart Meter (SG/SM) project that Burlington residents voiced to BED during last week’s “open house” event (see previous story here.) Voters will decide whether to approve a bond to pay for the new system on June 28th.
VT4Evolution comment – One of the many dubious claims in this video is: The Department of Energy will pay for Half of the Smart Grid Upgrade.
(US) Title XIII of EISA –
SEC. 1306. FEDERAL MATCHING FUND FOR SMART GRID INVESTMENT COSTS.
(a) MATCHING FUND.—The Secretary shall establish a Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program to provide reimbursement of one-fifth (20 percent) of qualifying Smart Grid investments.
We are the World and the Earth is our Inheritance! Heritage is now a Vestige the Soils to the Seas. The Guardians are the Hearts of the Awakened. Equality an Sovereignty are the Law Original, Corner Stone of each One, inter-dependent as each stone in a finished Arch. As the sandy shores of value recede the fertility of our minds re-seed with the Intention of our Interconnectivity.
The Whole is Beyond the sum of its parts, meaning: inanimate temporal material isn’t everything. Beyond material is what we perceive as Consciousness, Animation – Latin: animatio -onis f. [animating]; hence , [a living being].
It is the Respect for the “Other” that is the Recognition and Demonstration of this Principle. It is the way of the Earth Order. Those who break such Law loose their place, to be replaced by the Vestige of which I speak, the Remnant One Remunerated by the Majesty of Principle.
The answers to all Global Drama-Trauma is Healing, seeing the One Heart Goodness. Numerology used for exclusive benefit is a transgression of this Goodness which is Principle Law.
Ethic Love Solidarity Selflessness Sensitivity Generosity Humility Human PEACE
The County of Santa Cruz, as well as the Cities of Capitola, and Watsonville have adopted urgency ordinances prohibiting the installation of wireless “smart” meters within their jurisdictions. Forty-three local governments throughout the state have formally demanded a halt to the program because of concerns about health, privacy, accuracy, and fire safety… A showdown is looming between PG&E- who says they plan to disregard local government laws and force smart meters onto people’s homes, and local elected officials who are intent upon upholding the law and protecting the public.
Hart’s arrest follows another arrest on Saturday of San Francisco resident Amy O’Hair for blocking Wellington Energy installation trucks in her Glen Park neighborhood.
It all started with a Russian immigrant man, coming down to the entryway of his
apartment building to see what the crazy woman was yelling about on a lovely Saturday
morning. When he found an installer from Wellington, contracted by PG&E, had put a “smart” meter on his building without prior notice, and without anyone asking whether he wanted it, he said flatly
“This is communism. I want it off.” The Wellington installer
refused.
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — While too many of our leaders in Washington pretend that global warming, peak oil and the growing numbers of the hungry in our nation are just figments of the liberal imagination, I recently got a glimpse of a project that, when fully operational, will take care of all three problems and provide jobs in the process.
How? A Vermont company called Carbon Harvest Energy is running a 250-kilowatt generator that takes methane gas from the former Windham Solid Waste Management District landfill in Brattleboro and turns it into electricity. A local utility is buying the electricity made at the site, which it estimates is enough to power 300 homes.
Landfill gas is the natural by-product of the decomposition of solid waste in landfills and is comprised primarily of methane – a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, municipal solid waste landfills are the second largest human-generated source of methane emissions in the United States.
A project like this one not only prevents emissions of methane, but uses these gases to produce energy and other by-products. But turning a dangerous gas produced by landfills into energy is only the beginning of what is planned for what Carbon Harvest calls the Brattleboro Renewable Energy and Sustainable Agriculture Project.
When finished in the next year or so, the waste heat from the generator will be used to heat a 20,000-square-foot greenhouse and aquaculture facility that will grow 100 tons of organic vegetables and raise 25 tons of fish year-round for local markets and the Vermont Foodbank, which supplies food for the shelves of soup kitchens around the state.
A commercial-scale algae farm is also planned for developing other products, including biofuels, a sustainable fish-feed replacement and nutraceutical applications. The facility will also serve as a green technology research center to be used by
MONTPELIER – Gov. Peter Shumlin announced today the launch of http://www.vtenergyplan.vermont.gov/comment/public_comment a website that will serve as a one-stop source of information related to the state’s Comprehensive Energy Plan. That Plan, due Oct. 15, is under development by the Department of Public Service, in collaboration with other State agencies, stakeholders and the public. Through the website, the public will be able to follow developments and share their ideas through an online comment form.
“The active participation of Vermonters is essential in determining our energy needs and preferences moving forward,” Gov. Shumlin said. “Using this one-stop format to receive information from the public and keep Vermonters involved will help us identify and implement solutions to meeting our energy needs.”…
I tried out the Public Comment form, here is my “essential participation to determine public preferences in moving Vermont foreword”:
My concern is with the use of Radio Frequency Smart Meters in Vermont implementation of the much needed Grid upgrade. The World Health Organization recently rescheduled Radio Frequency Technology as possibly carcinogenic (WHO RF Press Release), and here we are ready to roll out RF Meters as a part of the upgrade in the name of efficiency. RF Meters are NOT essential to our much needed grid upgrade, the science proving RF meters are safe is incomplete. The Health of Vermonters should be a higher priority than efficiency.
FCC safety standards that are supposed to regulate RF meters were NOT designed to regulate this technology. The FCC “Safety Standards” Regulate the THERMAL effects of exposure to Radio Frequency and Microwaves. The other dangers are classified as NON-THERMAL which are NOT regulated.
An independent report of RF and Microwave exposure from Smart meters has documented that when Smart Meters are grouped they can even exceed these limited FCC regulations – The Sage Reports – http://sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/
This upgrade is a serious undertaking and very expensive, we better make sure it is safe! The White house recently released A POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR THE 21st CENTURY GRID: Enabling Our Secure Energy Future – where it states that the Smart Grid will save consumers money and $4.5 Billion of Federal funds has been allocated to the initiative, yet Title XIII of EISA states that the Federal funding will only cover 20% of investments that “qualify” as Smart grid investments. Lets make sure Smart Meters are safe before jumping into this costly investment.
It will be interesting to see if they choose to publish the public input on this web-page or if it is for “admin only” thing. I recommend if any of you live in Vermont and have concerns about RF “Smart Meters” that you voice you concerns to your reps. the Governor and to this new Public Forum.
The five members of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission refused to say Thursday whether they had voted in secret a day earlier on whether to ask the U.S. Justice Department to intervene in the lawsuit brought by Entergy Corp. against the state of Vermont over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
The comments came during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at which Sen. Bernie Sanders, a member of the committee, grilled commission members on their involvement in the Vermont Yankee litigation.
“My understanding is that there was a vote yesterday at the NRC on the issue in fact of whether or not the NRC should be involved in this case,” Sanders said while questioning NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko. “Can you tell me what the vote was, Mr. Commissioner?”
Jaczko and the other commissioners declined to answer, saying it was a matter of litigation strategy and that they had been urged not to speak about the matter by the Justice Department. But the chairman reiterated comments he first made in March as the NRC issued Vermont Yankee a 20-year license extension that he doubted there were grounds for the federal government to pre-empt state action.
“I don’t want to specifically comment on a matter that is in front of the commission because that is a privileged matter, but I see nothing that would tell me that there’s a pre-emption issue here,” Jaczko said in response to questions from Sanders.
Sanders aides had said Wednesday evening that they had received information that the NRC had voted in a closed-door session to ask the Justice Department to get involved in Entergy’s suit, arguing that federal laws and regulations governing nuclear power pre-empt the state laws that are threatening to shut Vermont Yankee down next March, when its initial 40-year license expires.
A senior NRC official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter, said the commission voted 3-2 on whether to ask the Justice Department to intervene, but he would not say which way the vote went.
• Facilitating and enabling a clean energy economy with significant use of renewable energy, distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and electric storage;
• Creating an electricity infrastructure that saves consumers money through greater energy efficiency, as well as supporting the more reliable delivery of electricity; and
• Enabling technological innovation that creates jobs of the future and new opportunities for empowering consumers to use energy wisely and reduce their energy bills
Lets look at the “savings” this Smart Grid will afford us. Excerpt from the report –
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) (U S Congress 2009) accelerated the development of smart grid technologies, investing $4.5 billion for electricity delivery and energy reliability activities to modernize the electric grid and implement dem- onstration and deployment programs (as authorized under Title XIII of EISA)
Excerpt from Title XIII of EISA –
SEC. 1306. FEDERAL MATCHING FUND FOR SMART GRID INVESTMENT COSTS.
(a) MATCHING FUND.—The Secretary shall establish a Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program to provide reimbursement of one-fifth (20 percent) of qualifying Smart Grid investments.
So the $4.5 Billion of our Tax monies will reimburse 20% of the New Smart Grid (for the qualifying investments)? Who will pay the other 80+%? Assuming the $4.5 B. covers the full 20%, that would ONLY be $18 Billion we need to come up with. If the Utility companies front us the money for this SMART upgrade, How many years will it take to pay them off, at what percent interest?
Original estimates of xenon and krypton releases remain the same, but a TEPCO recalculation shows dramatic increases in the release of hot particles. This confirms the results of air filter monitoring by independent scientists. Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen explains how hot particles may react in mammals while escaping traditional detection. Reports of a metallic taste in the mouth, such as those now being reported in Japan and on the west coast, are a telltale sign of radiation exposure.
VT Digger – Environmental activists in conjunction with the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance are calling for a rally at Burlington City Hall at 5 pm on June 23rd in opposition to an injunction hearing for Entergy Corporation who operates Vermont Yankee. The rally, titles “No Injunction; Decommission Vermont Yankee Now!” will also oppose nuclear power as a viable energy source in the wake of one of the worst nuclear power plantdisasters in history at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.
Can anyone really own water? There’s a 400 billion $ of global business made by corporations out of the blue gold every year.
Watch the full documentary – http://www.sprword.com/videos/flow/
WATER!
It is THE issue BIG Industries and their complicit regulators don’t want you to even consider as an issue. The UN declared access to clean water a human right last year… The US didn’t and doesn’t agree.
UN News – 28 July 2010 –
“Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the General Assembly declared today, voicing deep concern that almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water… The Assembly resolution received 122 votes in favour and zero votes against, while 41 countries abstained from voting.”
U.S. diplomat John Sammis told the General Assembly that the resolution “describes a right to water and sanitation in a way that is not reflective of existing international law.”
VT4Evolution response – Isn’t that the point? To declare it a human right and start the process of establishing it as international law?
Bacteria levels in Lake Champlain are within safe limits for swimming, state officials said Friday.
Concerns over possible contamination from flooded sewer systems and manure runoff from farms prompted testing of popular swimming sites during the past two weeks by the departments of Health and Environmental Conservation and Vermont State Parks.
one reader commented: I’m having a hard time understanding that with all the rain water that we have had in the past month that the beaches are safe to use when in a normal year the beaches seem to open and close periodically because all the bacteria levels are so high. The amount of runoff has to be staggering from all the farms, roads, sewers,and parking lots. Is the system flawed, are we being told the truth about the numbers?
I still haven’t seen any report on the sewage spill that the City of Burlington did in the end of April or the beginning of May( 3,500,000 gallons) What has happened to the almighty EPA or the State enviromentalists? How come they haven’t been held accountable looking into this? Seems that if an individual or a company did this dasterly deed they would be on the doorstep the next day with a hefty fine and asking what will be done to cleaned it up.
WHITING — When Gov. Peter Shumlin issued a surprise veto of a bill that would require all new residential wells be tested for a variety of toxic elements, he said he wanted to avoid levying a mandate on Vermonters.
He said most Vermonters’ water was as clean as could be….
It would take months for his frantic family to piece together that it was the water he was drinking at his grandparents’ Whiting home that had done this to him. That crisp, clear water contained arsenic…
Vermont cities and towns are struggling to overhaul their aging water systems, and the state says almost every one of them needs some kind of upgrade.
In Rutland, for example, most of the drinking water pipes were installed before 1900. Now those pipes are in desperate need of repair because they’ve failed repeatedly.
But as VPR’s Kirk Carapezza reports, repairs are an expensive proposition…
Rutland has more than 30 miles of underground pipes. Many were installed before the Civil War
Earlier this year, I was contacted by a PR firm working for Dow Chemical to contribute a 60-second video for The Future We Create virtual conference on water sustainability the company launches today. As a vocal advocate for strict regulation of toxic chemicals—especially for food and farming—I was surprised the company would approach me. Dow is the country’s largest chemical maker, and profits handsomely from developing some of the world’s most polluting products, many of which are widely used in industrial and consumer goods as well as agriculture.
In the video I submitted, which you can watch below, I stress that one of the greatest threats to clean water is chemical contaminants—and that Dow Chemical has a long history of water pollution. The PR representative e-mailed to say “unfortunately we can’t use your video,” but that she would be happy to include me, still, if I would consider re-recording it. When we discussed what that would mean she said, no “fingerpointing;” they wanted a “positive, inclusive discussion.”
We started hearing about water wars in 2002 with the notorious case of the conflict in Cochabamba, Bolivia where a scheme to privatize water distribution backfired dramatically and perfectly illustrated everything that seems wrong with globalization: a semi-peripheral government in debt, the World Bank steps in and demands privatization of everything, only one very large transnational corporation steps up and gets a sweet deal (low price, 16% guaranteed profit, ownership of private wells), reduces service and enormously raises prices on water. Activists and indigenous people fight back. The government represses.
Well, it appears that Italy is having a referendum today on the possible privatization of water (on top of voting to getting back to nuclear power and giving Berlusconi more immunity).
Italy is not the only place where water is at issue. The Patagonia region of Chile is also facing unrest and government repression over the possible construction of hydro-electric power plants.
There is a system currently working on providing water to the people from our own water source and thus tries to make crores of rupees profit in our state, even without the knowledge of the people’s representatives, said Dr. Kshithiz Uras from Action Aid Company, Bangalore. He was speaking on a debate held on the advantages and disadvantages of water privatization, organized at Kundapura Purasabhe new Community Bhavana.
With a slogan 24×7, a American team of water trading company namely U.S. Water Trade Mission, is looking to capture our country’s water with a expectation of 50 Billion dollars profit in the next 5 years. As per them, 24×7 means 8 hours and this company will be benefitting 2.50 lakhs crores from our state. United Nations instigated this business and pressurizing that if the financial help is required from the World Bank then these rules have to be complied.
(Beyond Pesticides, June 8, 2011) In an article published by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists at the University of Texas, El Paso and a co-investigator for the NSF/EPA University of California Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology warned that, as a new era of nanoagriculture is about to start, very little is known about it from a human and environmental health standpoint. The findings are published in an article entitled “Interaction of Nanoparticles with Edible Plants and Their Possible Implications in the Food Chain.”
Nanoagriculture is the use of nanotechnology to boost the productivity of plants, primarily for food or fuel. The researchers, led by Jorge Gardea-Torresdey, PhD, set out to better understand whether certain plants take up and accumulate nanoparticles, and if so whether this interaction poses problems for the plants–and the animals that eat those plants. The particles also could end up in the environment, settling in the soil, especially as fertilizers, growth enhancers and other nanoagricultural products hit the market. Some plants can take-up and accumulate nanoparticles.
Do you own your own home or business property? Think you have a right to own that property? Think again… Sustainable Development, Smart Growth, Eminent Domain and the Kelo law BEG TO DIFFER.
Kelo v. City of New London, was a Supreme Court Case in 2005, ruling on the issue of using eminent domain for the reason of economic development. They ruled the town had the right to take land from the private property owner with “reimbursement” (at below market value) for economic development. Now a days, especially in VT, “economic development” is “Smart” & Sustainable development. Private Property is subject to the Kelo ruling as president. Property doesn’t even need to be labeled as blighted for the Kelo “law” to be used.
Sustainable Development, Smart Growth, and Kelo:
Organized theft, by any name – August 2005
….John Adams said,
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God; and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
One would be hard-pressed to find a single word in the writings of the Founding Fathers to support the premise that it’s okay to take private property for economic development. To the contrary, they believed that the root of economic prosperity is the protection of private property….
Sustainable Development is top-down control, a ruling principle that affects nearly every aspect of our lives, including; the kind of homes we may live in; water policy that dictates the amount each American may use in a day; drastic reductions of energy use; the imposition of public transportation; even the number of inhabitants that may be allowed inside city borders. Most Americans have heard of a small part of this policy, operating under the name Smart Growth….
In order to meet such goals, federal, state, and local governments are scrambling to impose strict policies on development and land use. The use of Eminent Domain has become a favorite tool. Sustainable Development calls for partnerships between the public sector (your local government) and private businesses.
Kelo Backlash Could Lead to Restoration of Property Rights… June 2005
…On June 23, 2005, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court that private property can be taken by government for the purpose of economic development. Where Kings of England were once forbidden, the threshold is now open for a mere director of economic development to come crashing through, evict the poorest man, seize his cottage, rip it down, and sell what’s left to corporations and wealthy home buyers….
Distilled to its essence, Justice Stevens’s ruling has not just entitled the rich to prey upon the poor, but it also supports a process that encourages them to do so and thereby grants planners the resources and violence of the state to facilitate their acquisitive interests.
Burlington’s Smart Grid Voters Approved the Bond Vote on June 28th which will fund “half” of the $13.5 million “upgrade” to the city’s electrical system. Out of the 10’s of thousands of “should-be” Burlington voters, about 3000 decided to vote. The “win” was anything but a land slide – 1,808 yeas to 1,176, nays. Ward 7 was the only sector of Burlington voters who came out in numbers opposing the measure 387-264. Many of the working class people still don’t know what a Smart Meter is, they will come home from work one day to a brand new sparkly radiating “Smart” meter, no need to ask the residents, the vote has been WON!
VT 4 Evolution 