It never ceases to amaze me that people can be so poorly informed about such things as smart meters and renewable energy development. After all, we live in a world with easy, almost instantaneous, access to accurate information. So there really is no excuse for being misinformed.
Take, for example, the claims made in a recent email received by our group (B.C. Citizens for Green Energy) from someone who only identified themselves as “Cyber Grannie.”
Cyber Grannie claimed that the smart meters being installed by BC Hydro are “manufactured in China” and are therefore “not green” because the manufacturing plant in China would be powered by burning dirty coal.
Unfortunately for Cyber Grannie, her information about the origin of the smart meters being installed by BC Hydro is 100 per cent wrong. The Itron smart meters being installed in B.C. by BC Hydro are manufactured at Itron’s smart meter manufacturing facility in Oconee, South Carolina, not in China.
This information is easily found online for anyone who bothers to look for it. For example, Itron’s website has a Nov. 10, 2011 news item which details a plaque presentation to BC Hydro smart meter program staff to celebrate the delivery of the first 500,000 smart meters from Itron’s South Carolina manufacturing plant.
Interestingly, Cyber Grannie’s misinformed claim about smart meters is reminiscent of the “make-an-outrageous-claim-and-hope-it-sticks-to-the-wall” tactics we often see coming from COPE 378 union organizers who, among other things, are opposed to the implementation of smart meters because a couple of hundred COPE 378 union members currently employed as meter readers are being re-assigned or seeing their positions eliminated through normal attrition, saving taxpayers millions of dollars in salary costs along the way.
If Cyber Grannie has the computer savvy to create a screen name and set up a Hotmail account, then she should also have the ability to check basic facts online.
David Field, Co-spokesperson
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy