Media Advisory: “The High Road to a True Smart Grid”

Media Advisory: “The High Road to a True Smart Grid”

January 16, 2014 in -Mailing List, Conferences, Smart Meters and smart appliances by EMFacts

From Camilla Rees:

Media Advisory
Commonwealth Club of CA, San Francisco:
“The High Road to a True Smart Grid”
Tuesday, January 28th 12:00-3:00 p.m.

Washington, D.C., January 16, 2014. A multi-disciplinary expert panel on electricity and the economy of energy led by the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy (NISLAPP) will present at the Commonwealth Club of CA in San Francisco Tuesday, January 28th from 12-3 p.m. The program includes Timothy Schoechle, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at NISLAPP and author of the landmark white paper, Getting SmarterAbout the Smart Grid. There is a complimentary light lunch at 11:30 a.m. Tickets: $32 non-members, $20 members, $10 students (with valid ID).

The panel will address misconceptions about the present approach to electricity generation and distribution in the U.S., including the value of ‘smart meters’, and the pressing need for the U.S. to proactively tap into infinite renewable energy abundance. The audience will learn:

* How federal, state and local governments, and environmental organizations, have been misled about the purported benefits of “smart” meters.
* How “smart” meter investments, using billions in stimulus funding, do not benefit ratepayers or support economic growth, but financially prop up unsustainable Investor-Owned-Utilities (IOUs), while postponing investment in wise, genuinely ‘smart’ technical solutions and the inevitable transition to a decentralized and democratized electricity system.
* How conflicts of interests in the IOU monopoly utility business model are preventing us from moving to a renewable energy economy.
* Why the utility industry is so desperately pushing back against rooftop solar and net metering.
* Why the right to “opt out” of “smart” meters will not solve the pressing underlying risks and economic problems, nor will exploiting more fossil fuels, and why opt-outs may make the situation worse.
* How “smart meters” may be a surveillance “drone” in your home.
* Why U.S. policymakers evidence a lack of a basic understanding of the problems associated with the future of energy and electricity.
* How can we create a truly “WISE” decentralized electricity grid without the privacy, security, reliability, public health and economic risks of the present approach?
* Why local communities need to take control of their energy future, as is happening now in Boulder, CO.

The panelists will lay out the next steps the U.S. must take to achieve clean energy abundance—for the sake of our pocketbooks, sustainable energy independence, global economic competitiveness, preservation of natural resources, enhanced national security and to forestall the looming threat to life on Earth from man-made global
warming.

The program and dialogue with the audience afterwards will explore the pivotal roles communities and citizens can play, through political will, and including transpartisan
collaborations, in driving the pressing need for transformation in this sector. Dr. Timothy Schoechle has been engaged in development of electric utility meters, home
automation systems, gateways, and energy management systems for over 25 years and sits on several international standards setting committees related to the smart grid and to home and building automation systems.

Schoechle, in Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid, has called the smart meters being rolled out across the U.S. “a canard—a story or hoax based on specious claims
about energy benefits…”

Others on the January 28th Commonwealth Club panel, moderated by Camilla Rees, MBA, include engineer and physician, Karl Maret, MD, of Aptos, CA; new energy visionary, and
radio host, Duncan Campbell, Esq. of Boulder, CO, author of the white paper “New Energy for a New World”; and attorney Jim Turner, Esq, Partner of Swankin & Turner in
Washington, D.C., co-author of “Voice of the People: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life” and Chairman of the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy.

More info and Bios:http://www.gettingsmarteraboutthesmartgrid.org/the_high_road_to_a_true_smart_grid

To Register:
Commonwealth Club of California
595 Market Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
http://www.commonwealthclub.org/node/67617
415-597-6700
For Panelist Interviews:
Emily Roberson
Emily@GettingSmarterAbouttheSmartGrid.org
610-707-1602

http://www.emfacts.com/2014/01/media-advisory-the-high-road-to-a-true-smart-grid/