Thursday, November 12, 2009

“I’ll Gore” You With My Smart Meter, Billionaire Backer Al Gore Infers

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By Chimp

"Carbon billionaire" self-appointed “Global Warming” Czar Al Gore, who made his billions in “green” investments, may be mostly responsible for middle and low class Americans getting “gored” by their utility companies which have installed “smart meters”.

Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where Mr. Gore is a partner.

The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient.

It came to Mr. Gore’s firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships with utilities seeking to install millions of so-called “smart meters” in homes and businesses.

Mr. Gore and his partners decided to back the company, and in gratitude Silver Spring retained him and John Doerr, another Kleiner Perkins partner, as unpaid corporate advisers.

The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants.

Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts.

Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr. Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years.

Silver Spring Networks is a foot soldier in the global green energy revolution Mr. Gore hopes to lead.

Now, a class action lawsuit has been filed against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. over its SmartMeter program.

Many of the customers claimed that the SmartMeters don't work properly and are responsible for their sky-high energy bills.

Pacific Gas & Electric has "paused" installing smart meters in the Bakersfield area because of complaints from residents that their new Pacific Gas & Electric smart meters are overcharging them.

Pete Flores, of Bakersfield, claims in the suit filed last week in Kern County Superior Court that ever since PG&E installed a smart meter at his home, he's been charged for more electricity than he has used. Right now Flores – who says his average bill as jumped from about $200 a month to about $500 to $600 a month since he got a smart meter – is the only named plaintiff.

But his attorney, Michael Louis Kelly of the El Segundo, Calif.-based law firm Kirtland & Packard, is seeking class action status for the lawsuit to include every PG&E customer who has a smart meter.

"PG&E's taking a position that nothing's wrong, yet there are thousands and thousands of people saying there is," Kelly said Tuesday.

PG&E is in the process of a $2.2 billion, 10-million smart meter deployment in California.

As for the lawsuit, it isn't limiting its sights to PG&E. Other defendants named in the complaint include Wellington Energy Inc., the installer of the meters, as well as "DOE Defendants 1-100," or any company that might have played any role in the utility's smart meter deployment, from wireless communications to back-end software, as well as unspecified roles.

PG&E is deploying smart meters made by General Electric and Landis+Gyr and networked by Silver Spring Networks, the company financed by Al Gore’s firm.






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