Set the stage: former Enviro / Energy White House Advisor to Obama, Carol Browning (from US News and World Report)
We need to make sure that we’re really moving electricity in the smartest way and using the most cost-effective electricity at the right time of day. Eventually, we can get to a system where an electric company will be able to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air conditioner won’t operate at its peak, you’ll still be able to cool your house, but that’ll be a savings to the consumer. And so [we will be] giving people and companies a role in the management of how we use electricity.
Right; THAT gives me the warm and fuzzies. Just like Obama when he said “at some point you’ve earned enough money”, Carol Browning wants to see the day when “you’ve used enough energy – and we know better where that point it”. Sure, we will get to “play a role”, but merely a sham one – someone else will be making the shots via smart meters that will watch what you use and send that information back to our Energy Rulers.
Now for the story about a Smart Meter installation and guns…Texas Woman Pulls Gun on Meter Installer
At Greenwire (subscription required, reformatted):
Texas Woman Pulls Gun on Meter Installer
In order to keep a smart meter from being installed in her home, a Houston woman pulled out a gun. Harris County, Texas, resident Thelma Taormina grabbed her gun when a worker from CenterPoint Energy arrived to install the electric meter. The 55-year-old woman has a license for a concealed handgun.
“He kept pushing me away,” she said. “He saw [the gun] and went back the other way.” CenterPoint officials said they were “deeply troubled by anyone [who] would pull a gun on another person performing their job.”
The utility has been installing thousands of smart meters for several years in the Houston area. While the company says the meters would cut costs and reduce power consumption, owners say the new meters bring higher electricity bills. Under the current system, homeowners cannot opt out of the meters.
“Our constitution allows us not to have that kind of intrusion on our personal privacy,” Taormina said. “They’ll be able to tell if you are running your computer, air conditioner, whatever it is”
Steven Hayward wrote the post on Powerline and had a different “setup” for the story than I did (I just merely wanted to point out that the Obama Administration has already gone down the path of “gee, look what we can do with this (being one of the “stone age energy level” environ-wackos)):
Long before the age of government-mandated low-flush toilets and low-wattage light bulbs, William F. Buckley captured the essence of modern nanny-state liberalism with his comment that a liberal is someone who wants to reach in and turn down your shower. People are wise to the endlessly meddling ways of modern liberalism, which is why there is so much resistance to the plans of electric utilities, thoroughly socialized and housebroken by decades of regulation, to introduce “smart meters” to private residences. I get the idea behind “smart meters,” and like them in the abstract.
Me too – the engineer in me says “sure, if it can help ME determine my energy costs and usage”. Also cool if it allow the network better direct resources. The Liberty and Freedom blogger in me, however, says “hand me the Mossberg if it allows someone else to reach into the privacy of my house and flip my switches without my assent; especially if it is Government doing it just because they can (see above, Carol Browning).”
But a lot of people understand that smart meters may be the first step to enabling the Thermocrats to dial back your power usage remotely if they think you are using “too much” electricity to, say, keep yourself cool during hot summer afternoons. Utilities already try to persuade people to volunteer to allow them to cycle off your appliances remotely during periods of peak demand in return for a slight discount on your bill. But things that start out voluntary have a way of becoming mandatory with liberals, and smart meters are a step to enhancing the power of environmentalist Thermocrats.
“Environmentalist Thermocrats” – not much different than Watermelon environmentalists. And they do like to incrementalize us all to their ends.
(H/T: Powerline)