Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The NV Public Utilities Commission whose job as defined by the Nevada Revised Statute they were created under:

"NRS 703.025 Reorganization of Commission; duties of Commission relating to reorganization; Commission authorized to adopt regulations for operation and enforcement of laws; plan for reorganization.

2. The Commission shall:

2) The reliability and safety of the provision of that utility service within that competitive market"

When it comes to safety, they are seriously deficient in both their acceptance of "expert testimony" and biasness towards NV Energy.

On December 2, 2011, NV Energy filed in Docket Number 11-10007, Document identification Number 13267, [1] whereby, they paid Exponent for "expert testimony" to refute and mitigate all the consumers concerns over Sensus Smart Meters. Along with having Exponent appear at the December 6, 2011 hearing and interacting with the NV PUC, including the Hearing Master Nancy Wenzel and Policy Analysis Staff Members Jon Davis and David Chairez.

Even after numerous consumers refuted the "science" as portrayed by Exponent, the NV PUC blindly followed and accepted the "paid for" testimony.

On May 25, 2010, a Qui Tam Complaint was filed in The United States District Court For the Northern District of Alabama Southern Division, Case No.: CV-10-CO-1337-S, United States of America ex rel, Don Baker vs Sensus USA, Inc., Sensus Metering Systems, Inc., The Southern Company, and Alabama Power Company, with allegations of fire safety concerns over their smart meters. [2]

Sensus hand picked the Plaintiff as their Project Manager, upon Plaintiff's discovery of flaws and "non-testing" of the meters, with Sensus downplaying the severity of the situation, which resulted in the Qui Tam being filed. When the NV PUC received notification on a couple of occasions of the litigation, they concertedly decided to ignore it. Because of the five (5) minute time constraints for public comments a letter was sent directly to the Commissioners on February 19, 2012. [3]

When another utility, PECO, paid Exponent to review Sensus Meters for safety etc., "Peco hired two independent consultants and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to examine the meters after it suspended installations. The test results convinced the utility to swap out all the meters manufactured by Sensus Metering Systems Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., with those made by a Swiss vendor, Landis & Gyr AG…Officials earlier had indicated the meter problems were linked to faulty connections between the devices and the meter boards to which they are attached with four metal prongs. Experts suggested that poor connections caused electrical resistance and overheating in the meter sockets, which caused the devices to fail…Peco did not immediately release the results of its independent tests, which were conducted by Exponent Engineering and Scientific Consulting, of Menlo Park, Calif., and the National Electric Energy Testing Research and Applications Center (NEETRAC), which is affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology." [4]

Exponent is known for "creating" science to confirm their clients concerns, as referenced in "Doubt is Their Product-How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health", by David Michaels, MPH, Ph.D., Assistance Secretary of Labor for OSHA.

In Chapter 5, "The Enronization of Science", Exponent's prior "science" involved asbestos, MTBE, to reference a few, which have now proven to be contrary to their "scientific" analysis. [5]

Exponent in less than a year has apparently provided conflicting safety reports on Sensus meters, in both Pennsylvania and Nevada.

Considering that all the states that are offering opt-out programs, only Nevada is not giving the consumers the option to keep their analog meters. Rather they are saddling consumers with meters that are being called in question by other states electric companies. This is lack of concern for the consumers they are empowered to protect is starting to look like grounds for either nonfeasance or malfeasance.

Based on the thousands of pages of submitted consumer comments referencing documented, independent, peer reviewed science that refutes the "testimony" of Exponent and other "experts" of NV Energy, one can conservatively guesstimate, that it is 90% dumb and 10% duped regarding the NV PUC.

References

[1] http://pucweb1.state.nv.us/PDF/AxImages/DOCKETS_2010_THRU_PRESENT/2011-10/13267.pdf

[2] http://www.national-toxic-encephalopathy-foundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SensusComplaint.pdf

[3] http://www.national-toxic-encephalopathy-foundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/PUC-exponent-and-baker_merged.pdf

[4] http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/12/10/after-tests-peco-resume-smart-meter-installations?quicktabs_11=1&quicktabs_4=2&quicktabs_6=1

[5] http://www.national-toxic-encephalopathy-foundation.org/Chp5Doubt.pdf