Karma lurks in the inky shawdows around the Naperville city council

It’s funny how Karma works. Whether you believe it exists or not, it can catch you by surprise; sort of like emphysema. Take for example Chevrolet’s recent announcement that if you are concerned that your new Chevrolet Volt will catch fire, they will go as far as to buy it back. This comes after safety investigations continue on the electric car, which has caught fire following test crashes. A buy-back seems rather drastic until you consider that GM has sold only about 6,000 Volts; that is nothing compared to the 52,000 Smart Meters that the Naperville city council will install in Naperville against the wishes of Naperville citizens.  GM executives continue to insist that the Volts are safe, very similar to the Naperville city council insisting that Smart Meters are safe.

GM spokesperson Greg Martin said that once GM’s engineering team and federal safety officials figure out the cause of the fires, they should be able to do something about it. In other words, they have no idea what the problem is. Very similar to Naperville city manager Doug Krieger having no idea that federal funds to help the needy in Naperville would be withheld due to lack of oversight by the person in charge of overseeing. The GM spokesperson went on to say that “Volt owners are the least likely people to complain about the car because they want this kind of technology; they’ve been waiting for it.” So let me get this straight; they want this technology so much that it’s OK if they catch fire. Again similar to the Naperville city council being hell-bent on installing Smart Meters and that citizen concerns are unimportant.

Now we are getting closer to the Karma piece. On October 11, Naperville Mayor George Pradel, on behalf of the city, enthusiastically accepted a Chevy Volt electric vehicle from a local dealer. Just like a kid with a new toy, he took a ceremonial drive around the Naperville Auto Test Track to publicly demonstrate how cool it was to have an electric car, very similar to Naperville city council members publicly demonstrating how safe Smart Meters are.  When they finally got him off the track, it was decided that the Mayor would drive the electric car for a period of time and then city council members would each tool around town for their fun time. It was considered a great way to bridge the coolness of electric cars and the Naperville Smart Grid Initiative (NSGI). Now comes the Karma, you have a group of clueless and tyrannical politicians, driving an electric car that occasionally catches fire promoting not-so Smart Meters; it is almost like a perfect storm.

Chances are if you see the city’s Volt parked in the lower level of the Municipal Center parking deck, you will know that somewhere near there will be a city council member dragging a fire extinguisher around when it is his or her turn to drive it for the day. Just as the city council is making it mandatory that citizens have Smart Meters attached to their homes, maybe the citizens of Naperville should make it mandatory that the council members be required to all pile into the volt (like a clown car) when going out to lunch together. The only question would be who is going to carry the extinguisher.

Show 4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Gerard H Schilling

    May I humbly suggest the Volt be parked not in our city’s garage but rather in Wehrli’s or Feiseler’s so that when it catches fire it destroys their property not ours. Also, perhaps our council members should lead by example and have their smart meters installed first then contact their home insurance company and find out how much their fire insurance will increase.

  2. Jennifer Stahl

    Google “Smart Meter Fires” and see what you get. A man in Texas won a case against his electric company for property damages valued at $875.

    Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3nNo89-NU

    And GUESS WHAT — Our own Utility is not liable for personal injury or death or property damage due to equipment failure:

    Under 8-1C-3: – TERMS AND CONDITIONS: [Electric Service Rates section]
    #6 “Continuous Service: The City shall not be liable for any loss, or damage to property or for any personal injury or death resulting directly or indirectly from any discontinuity of service for any reason, including lightning, wind, ice, storm, equipment wear or failure, temporary interruption to accommodate equipment or facility repair or replacement, and any act of God. ”

    Who lives in an old house in Naperville? Anyone feeling secure about getting this new meter? The house on the above video didn’t look all that old.

  3. Sandy Glass

    Karma or abuse of power, arrogance and audacity? The Council somehow believes that their election to office is to impose their will on citizens, instead of representing the taxpayers wishes. Think about it. Council decided, without a referendum and vague references to the smart grid have mandated that we turn over our homes to the City, big government, crony business and ambitious staff to use for a grand science and social behavior modification experiment. Without our consent and against our will they are forcing us to have wireless data collection and monitoring devices, called “smart meters” installed on our homes, that will ransack our homes every 15 minutes for information on our electric use. That data can certainly profile many of our daily activities, including our sleeping habits, prime family activities, waking routines and time our homes are empty. Furthermore they are seizing our homes for their own commericial purposes, turning each home into data transmitting stations. Even AT&T had to get permission to install equipment. Worse yet, through language manipulation they are marketing this mandate under “choice” and “smart.”. To economically punish families who make the wrong choice, for health, security or personal reasons they are “choosing” to opt out, or as the city calls, “work around” the Council is charging them $24.95 dollars a month for that choice and demanding that they sign an agreement with the city. Why won’t the Council release the data file that will be stored on each home? Why are they confiscating our privacy and the somehow justify the action by replacing citizen privacy with a toothless “privacy and security” bill of rights? Just wait until Council’s double-speak of “choice” begins with “time of use billing,” or “voluntary” utility controlled demand load shifting (controlling our thermostat for starters). The premature market introduction of the Volt will be nothing compared to the economic misery that is coming our way with the mischief that central planners are going to bring with these “smart meters.”

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