Smart Meter Update from PASafeTech
PA CHD is passing on a smart meter update from our collaborative EMF organization Pennsylvanians for Safe Technology. Please help support the great work they do to make Pennsylvania residents safer and healthier in their home environment.
We are sending you this update on our Smart Meter Opt Out Legislative Effort because you filed a smart meter Formal Complaint with the PUC, were one of the 107 customers PUC threatened with termination of electrical service in November 2023, have been injured by or are sensitive to smart meter radiation, or wish to avoid smart meter health hazards and privacy violations.
Rep. Robert Matzie, former Chair of the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee and the other 24 Committee members knew full well that smart meter radiation was harming constituents and putting the health of 13 million Pennsylvanians at risk.
Yet he and his Committee members refused hundreds of requests to hold a public hearing and consider sworn testimonies from victims and subject matter experts. Collectively, they refused to reply to constituent letters, thus exhibiting an egregious and unconscionable violation of public trust. Matzie himself accepted $20,000 in campaign donations from utility companies to help ensure his November 5, 2024, re-election, which he won by a slim 4.6% margin. Consequently, HB 1202 died in Committee.
We cannot let this stand and resolve to continue the fight at the legislative level in 2025. With the start of a new Legislative Session for 2025-2026, there is a new Chair of the Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee Chair, Rep. Danilo Burgos (Dem, Philadelphia County, 197th District), who ran unopposed in the November election and was re-elected. The turnover in this Committee was 50%. Our champion Rep. Brett Miller, HB 1202 co-sponsor and key supporter for smart meter choice legislation, is among those no longer assigned to this Committee.
Rich Myers, our point man for HB 1202, turns 80 next month and is no longer serving in that role. He has fought his own case all the way to the Commonwealth Court, meeting the same fate as those who preceded him. To continue our grassroots campaign to pass smart meter choice/opt-out legislation in the 2025-26 Session, we are forming a small committee to spearhead the campaign to get our Meter Choice Bill enacted. We have a solid library of background information — petition formats, letters, contact names, talking points – which we can revise and use. In addition, we have the collective experience of our members, and a small budget which we originally collected for billboards and road signs. As Rep. Burgos is from Philadelphia, we will move some of our focus to that metropolitan area. We hope to increase our efforts to educate lawmakers and the public. We have some funding for billboards and if we can obtain enough help and funding, we would like to host a lunchtime Compendium at the state Capitol to educate legislators and their staff on the need for legislation, such as opt outs for wireless utility meters and setbacks from cell towers that would better protect the public from the deleterious effects of electromagnetic radiation.
Contact Pennsylvanians for Safe Technology at pasafetech@protonmail.com if you are interested in working on this committee or helping explore the possibility of hosting a compendium at the Capitol or if you can help us in any other way. You may forward this email to friends, family and health-conscious citizens who might want to support our meter choice legislative campaign.
Thank you.
Pennsylvanians for Safe Technology
A collaborative project with:
Pennsylvania Veterans Consortium
PA Smart Meter Work Group
SW Pennsylvania for Safe Technology
Right2Liberty of Beaver County
Donna Ott
Pennsylvanians for Safe Technology
Gene Bazan
PA Smart Meter Work Group
Richard Myers
Pennsylvania Veterans Consortium
Susan Jennings
SW Pennsylvania for Safe Technology
Joel D’Alessandro
Right2Liberty of Beaver County