Letter to the Editor

An Open Response to MLEC about Wireless RF Smart Meters

This is a response to an interview/article published in the Lewis County Herald on Oct. 20, 2022, with Keith Carnahan, President and CEO of MLEC.

MLEC has received many emails and phone calls from MLEC members and the community who do not want the current smart meters to be replaced with wireless microwave radiation RF smart meters.

Based on the above-mentioned interview, we ask MLEC to respond to its members and the community to clarify the following questions and comments:

1. What specifically is the “mis-information being spread about meter upgrades” that Keith Carnahan refers to?

- So far, many dozens of published articles and studies have been shared which document and support the legitimate concerns of members over the privacy, surveillance, control and health issues with the proposed RF smart meters.

2. What exactly are the specific scientific studies that prove to MLEC that the RF meters are safe?

- The FCC’s current wireless radiation safety limits are based on very limited research conducted 40 years ago (before most people had cell phones), and were ruled to be “arbitrary and capricious” by a Federal Court in 2021.

3. Specifically what is the “old out-dated equipment that cannot be serviced due to replacement parts not being available”?

- And has MLEC explored all options and suppliers when looking to replace any outdated equipment?

4. The decision by MLEC to change the meters to wireless RF smart meters was made without informing or consulting the members or the community, who will all be affected, and without the Board of Directors being adequately informed of the surveillance, privacy, control and health risks of wireless RF smart meters.

5. “MLEC members were advised of the coming changes in the monthly publication Tennessee Magazine.”

- However in that April 2022 magazine article, MLEC neglected to mention that the new meters would be wireless microwave RF smart meters, or that they emit 24/7, without the ability of property owners to turn off their pulsing radiation.

6. “The new meters send a signal once a day to record usage, the signal lasts only a few seconds.”

- How many times a day do the meters pulse electromagnetic microwave radiation in the process of collecting the data that it then sends to MLEC “once a day”?

7. “Concerns of privacy invasion are false, the equipment is unable to do that. This is not 5G, it is very secure.”, says Keith Carnahan.

- Martin Pollock of Siemens Energy explains RF smart meters: “We have the technology to record it (energy consumption) every minute, second, microsecond, more or less live. From that we can infer how many people are in the house, what they do, whether they’re upstairs, downstairs, do you have a dog, when do you habitually get up, when did you get up this morning, when did you have a shower: masses of private data.”

The only secure data, is data never collected.

8. The comment about the “research compiled by Dr. Yakov P. Shkolnikov…” is incomplete and misleading.

- The topics of non-ionizing radiation, how RF smart meters function, and the health risks of radiation from cell phones are all very different and complex subjects. They cannot be causally explained away in one sentence.

9. “Options are available and MLEC has been working with individual customers about their concerns.”

- In truth, MLEC has not been transparent about their plans to rollout wireless RF smart meters, has made it inordinately difficult to contact one’s elected Board members, and has not responded or even acknowledged the majority of emails they have received from concerned members. On the other hand, our two Board Members in Lewis County, Jeff Peery and Bill Webb, have been very accessible and open to their members’ concerns.

In conclusion, our community needs answers to the questions and comments above, and we ask that MLEC stop all work and planning on the rollout of the wireless RF smart meters until our concerns are taken seriously. We need community meetings to discuss the science, the surveillance issues and the options.

Jan Tache

[email protected]