The Heart of Darkness in the Power of Light

For most people who are alive today in the United States, there has never been a time when they lived without electricity in the conduct of their normal daily activities.   We are so accustomed to having it that the wonderment of it has faded and the expectation of its availability is on the same level as the expectation that the sun will come up tomorrow.  But just for a moment, try to imagine what the United States would be like if all the electric generation facilities were shut down and the lights went out in America. 

It doesn’t take much imagination to envision the consequences.  For the modern society, it is the power of God at the flip of a switch - a binary equation.  ON = life, order, industry, bounty, pleasure,  OFF = death, chaos, silence, starvation, bewilderment and despair.  There are no in-betweens.  QED.

ON /OFF
TRUE / FALSE
YES / NO

That is true power with no pun intended.   And that is why the utility companies were regulated monopolies because at the flip of a switch, America could be shut down, destroyed, out of business. 

On December 3, 2011, I received a letter (letters actually – two of them, duplicates mailed registered and certified return receipt), from Idaho Power in which they exercised the monopoly power of life and death by their threat to shut off my electricity.  This threat was not for non-payment, but because I wouldn’t allow them to install a device that would give them permanent, convenient, intermittent and selective ON/OFF control over my home and my life.  When they issued the threat, they put on full display, the heart of darkness in the power of light.

According to the letter(s), Idaho Power is an innocent middleman that doesn’t want to threaten me or shut off my power, but they must because of a “lawful order” from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.  That’s an interesting proposition because it means that the Idaho Public Utilities Commission is attempting to extend their regulatory authority through Idaho Power to me personally.  That’s unacceptable for many reasons both obvious and not so obvious. 

One of the responses I received from my email request for assistance on this issue pointed me to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as being the legislation authorizing smart meters. 

109^th Congress, H.R. 6, Public Law 109-58     Sponsor Joe Barton (TX) with 2 co-sponsors

2005-2006 Contributions to Joe

Representative Joe Barton

The Energy Policy Act of 2005,
Title XXII—Electricity, Subtitle E, Section 1252. SMART METERING.      

SEC. 1252. SMART METERING.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2621(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

‘‘(14) TIME-BASED METERING AND COMMUNICATIONS.—(A) Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this paragraph, each electric utility shall offer each of its customer classes, and provide individual customers upon customer request, a time-based rate schedule under which the rate charged by the electric utility varies during different time periods and reflects the variance, if any, in the utility’s costs of generating and purchasing electricity at the wholesale level.  The time-based rate schedule shall enable the electric consumer to manage energy use and cost through advanced metering and communications technology.

Notice that the language says, “shall offer”.

Because Congress and the lobbyists who own them never stop implementing “reforms”, I checked 16 U.S.C 2621(d) to see if the law changed regarding the “offer”.   Here is the text in the law:

(14) Time-based metering and communications

       (A) Not later than 18 months after August 8, 2005, each electric utility shall offer each of its customer classes, and provide individual customers upon customer request, a time-based rate schedule under which the rate charged by the electric utility varies during different time periods and reflects the variance, if any, in the utility's costs of generating and purchasing electricity at the wholesale level. The time-based rate schedule shall enable the electric consumer to manage energy use and cost through advanced metering and communications technology.

I don’t see a customer mandate in there.  The rest of the section does have mandates for the utility companies to implement new equipment for the smart grid, time-of-day pricing, etc. If the Idaho Public Utilities Commission does in fact, order Idaho Power to implement equipment for monitoring, surveillance and control (smart meter for 'Demand-side management'), then they are attempting to institute a system of police power by proxy through the utility company using extortive tactics. 

Monster of the Deep

Monopoly of Power Partnered with Power Monopolies

Idaho Public Utilities Commissions

Vicky Davis
December 5, 2011