SmartMeters Working Just Fine: PG&E

Pacific Gas & Electric said that in no cases has it turned up evidence of faulty SmartMeters over-reporting gas or electricity use and inflating customers' bills.

Instead, the northern California utility said that state-approved rate hikes shortly before the summer heat arrived last year is to blame.

The state says that the independent testing of the devices it promised in October will start soon, with the California Public Utilities Commission promising to name a consultant to oversee the audit by next week.

Last week, a panel of computer and network security experts discussed the potential vulnerability of smart-grid technologies like the new meters, raising the scary prospect of hackers potentially gaining control of gas and electric utility networks.

But the real story here is that nobody in California trusts PG&E not to screw them over.

Which would explain why the company calls itself part of a "consortium" backing a ballot measure, Proposition 16, that would make it more difficult for municipalities to implement community choice aggregation and offer competing utility service.

That "consortium" is wholly funded and organized by, you guessed it, PG&E.

Photo by Wikipedia user Zuzu.

Jackson West will be voting no on Proposition 16.