Four Asheville NC Families Disconnected By Duke for Refusing Smart Meters on their Homes

Things are literally heating up for at least four families in Asheville, North Carolina after Duke Energy disconnected their homes last week simply for refusing smart meters on their homes (a choice many of us in the rest of the country take for granted).  The Raleigh ES site has been tracking developments, and are raising money for the families affected in this case.

Here is an excerpt from their diary:

“It’s also very hot today and so we are trying to power some small fans with the generator, but it’s also very loud and the other neighbors on the street will probably get quite tired of this situation. For sure having our power abruptly cut off was a shock and has caused a major shift in everything we do, there are lessons in it, but also unfortunate circumstances that are quite a challenge. In order to work on editing all the footage we have from 7 different cameras that were running each for about 15-20 minutes it took a lot of coordinating and time and patience to put it all together, and since we didn’t have generators yet our computers died so we sometimes had to go down to another neighbors house who let us sit on her back porch and plug in. We were up late last night, after midnight, and then I was up again at 4:30 this morning working on the footage, fixing things, preparing for the day before my kids wake up….”

Stop Smart Meters! stands in solidarity with this group resisting smart meters in Asheville and all around the world. We ourselves have lived through plenty of utility abuse, living 18 months without electricity as retaliation for our refusal to pay opt out fees (we prevailed in court and they were forced to turn our power back on and cancel all extortion charges).

Remember, the utilities have ZERO legal right to force smart meters on your property. It is, after all, YOUR property– not theirs. Utility companies typically resort to bullying tactics like depriving people of electricity to their homes, and levying extortion fees, in order to pressure the public to accept their deeply unpopular wireless meters. Increasingly, though, people are just not buying it.

With any luck, public support, and resolve on the part of those standing their ground in Asheville, Duke will be forced to back down, or lose their customers to increasingly economical off-grid power systems.

Stop Utilities’ Criminal Assaults on Paying Customers!