Fairfax Continues to Fight Smart Meters

After the California Public Utilities Commissions (CPUC) ruled that PG&E could launch a Smart Meter opt-out program that charges customers to not recieve the wireless, digital meters, Fairfax decided that wasn't good enough.

Last week, the town, which still has a moratorium on the meters in place, held a special meeting for the town council to consider the CPUC decision and file a motion for a stay of enforcement on the decision.

"It was a rushed judgement," said Fairfax Councilman Larry Bragman about the CPUC decision on the opt-out program. "They made the decision without actually having done any research into the actual costs."

Read more about the digital, wireless PG&E Smart Meters.

Under the opt-out system, PG&E customers can choose to pay a one-time $75 and monthly $10 service fee to keep their old analog meters. Low-income customers can opt out of the Smart Meter program for an initial fee of $10 and an ongoing monthly charge of $5.

Those charges haven't stopped Marin from being among the counties with the highest number of people opting-out to date.

According to The Marin Independent Journal, 450 of the 4,400 customers who have chosen to opt-out are Marin residents.

Still, the price attached to the opt-out is likely stopping other customers concerned about the digital meters for health, privacy, security or accuracy reasons.

"It's supressing the number and volume of opt-out customers," said Bragmen.

Bragman, instead, encourages people to opt-out right away and get on the list, because he's been informed PG&E won't be charging customers immediately and, in the mean time, towns like Fairfax are continuing to fight the decision.

That information about opting-out will be added to the town of Fairfax's website as one of the decisions that came out of the special meeting last week.

The council also decided to file a motion for a stay of enforcement of the opt-out decision. That motion will be filed in conjunction with Marin County and other towns, as well as nonprofit groups that have formed around this issue.

The CPUC has said they will consider in a second phase additional issues, such as jurisdictional opt-outs -- a possibility that would allow the entire town of Fairfax to opt-out of recieving the meters. The motion for a stay would argue that PG&E shouldn't continue the installation until these issues are resolved, because continued installation would make it harder for opt-outs retroactively.

Additionally, Bragman argued that the CPUC never considered if charging customers to keep their analog meters is a violation of public utility code, which prohibits fees based on medical conditions. In a CPUC study, Bragman said, 3.2 percent of people self-reported as electro-magnetically sensitive, a medical condition, and there are additional people with immune deficiencies or cancer who might not want the meters for medical reasons.

Fairfax still has a moratorium on the meters in place. And, as opposed to in unincorporated Marin County, where the moratorium hasn't stopped meters from being installed, PG&E has said they are voluntarily delaying installation in Fairfax.

And, Bragman said, he has been told there are no immediate plans to begin deploying en masse in Fairfax.

Though, he acknowledges, that when and if that deployment comes to town, "I'm not sure what we're going to do at this point." The only thing that is certain is that it will likely become a public safety issue and is something the town hopes to avoid.

"There's a mutual acknowledgment that we're stuck with each other," Bragman said. "In a sense, we've come a long way."

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