By Catherine J. Frompovich

The good people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have been deprived of their U.S. and State Constitutional rights regarding the forced imposition along with aggravated harassment by utility companies of those who stood their rights for refusing an AMI Smart Meter because the law enacted (Act 129 of 2008) was written as an Opt-In bill/law.

However, many people are chomping at the bit about what’s going on in Pennsylvania and there’s been a new set of bills affecting AMI Smart Meters introduced in to the House Consumer Affairs Committee.  Below is an overview of what’s happened in the past so previous bills wouldn’t be enacted, plus information why there has to be an investigation into the chairman of that committee.

Ever since the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PA PUC) erroneously believed, as confirmed in PA PUC Office of Communication’s Dave Hixson’s March 22, 2017 letter to Thomas A. McCarey, and wrote implementation regulations for AMI Smart Meters per HB2200/Act 129 (2008), which actually was written as an OPT-IN Bill for electric, natural gas and water utilities, passed and signed as OPT-IN legislation [see HB2200 §2807(f)7(2) (i), (ii), (iii)], Pennsylvanians have suffered much harassment, indignation, and even poor health for themselves and their families (electromagnetic hypersensitivity—EHS) as a result with no apparent relief in sight.

Here is an example from of utility PECO’s “hard ball tactics” for a customer who wants to get off the grid: “Peco bill to hook Chesco man’s solar array into grid: $45K.” PECO is demanding $45,000 plus hoops to be jumped through!  How much did PECO charge pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson to construct and place online its solar panel farm  just off the west side of Route 309 Expressway between Flourtown and Ft. Washington, PA?  That SOLAR PANEL FARM must had a hundred or more solar panels, so how can PECO’s system handle that, if it can’t handle the solar array Kevin Dunleavy of Chester County wants to install?

The PA PUC’s apparent over-reach and its rabid enforcement via utility companies’ tactics apparently were recognized as needing correcting, so the PA state legislature (House members) introduced numerous opt-out bills over the last six years, since the PA PUC claimed there was no opt-out provision in Act 129! No opt-out was needed; it was an opt-in bill the PA PUC rewrote during their regulations and implementation writing exercises. Other states provide OPT-OUTs from AMI Smart Meters!  Why not Pennsylvania?

What does that say if the PA state legislature tried to correct the untenable situation and provide opt-outs for suffering Pennsylvanians?  The problem of not having smart meter opt-out legislation in PA is found with the apparent vested-interests of the House Consumer Affairs Committee Chairman, Robert Godshall, where all the opt-out bills were sent for review and voting out of committee.

Chairman Godshall, whose son Grey works as a Project Manager for Exelon/PECO—the utility harassing SE Pennsylvania utility customers, refused to call all those opt-out bills for a vote over six years and allowed them to die (sine die) in committee.  Chairman Godshall should be sanctioned by the PA legislature for depriving Pennsylvanians of their constitutional rights to redress government as guaranteed by the U.S. and PA Constitutions!