Smart Meters - Public Service Commission

Smart Meter Fires/Maryland hearing on issue
AUGUST 28, 2012 BY
Maryland Hearing to Consider Smart Meter Fires After Pennsylvania
Utility PECO Energy Calls a Moratorium
This post came from: stopsmartmeters.org 8/27/2012
As reported in the Baltimore Sun today, the Maryland Public Service Commission may
have some tough questions for the state’s utilities tomorrow at an emergency hearing
specifically looking at the issue of fires caused by “smart” meters. Or, more likely it will
be another dog and pony show assuring the public everything is alright even as people’s
homes burn down, thousands are sickened and spied upon and the bottom falls out from
under the smart grid. Nevertheless, the pressure is building on regulators to
actually do something for once, after a spate of smart meter fires earlier
this month in Pennsylvania shut down installations by Peco Energy using
Sensus meters- a company that we reported in January as having been responsible for
multiple meter fires in Alabama and the object of an employee whistleblower lawsuit
alleging fire risk. PECO is a subsidiary of Exelon Corp. a company which was just called
out for engaging in “pay to play” politics. You can mostly hide the threat of invisible
microwave radiation. A house burning down or a melted smart meter- that’s a little
more difficult to sweep under the rug.
This smart meter was photographed after a
fire that injured an elderly woman in San Francisco. Where is the California Public
Utilities Commission? Or our “representatives”?
The photographs emerging of melted plastic smart meters have become an
iconic symbol of a failing technology roll-out. A corporate program that
places profit over safety. A symbol of how the utility industry- and the
current brand of virtually unregulated capitalism in western countries- is
harming people and the environment, not to mention the financial wellbeing
of 99% of us. Why would they build a device -through which all of the electrical
current for your house flows- out of plastic that can melt and catch fire? Even a third
grader knows that plastic burns and melts while glass resists flame. Back when our