Smart electric meters are coming - in some parts of NH, at least

My column today is about the push by two utilities with an NH presence to add digital/smart meters as a first step toward creating a 21st-century power grid. You can read it here.

I spent almost no time in the article talking about fears from a small number of people who think that wireless electric meters are somehow medically dangerous. Why? Because there's no only so much space in an article and so much reader attention in the universe. I prefer to occupy it with real issues - such as concern about privacy or cost to consumers.

A few people spoke at a hearing I attended in Concord who presented vague anecdotes along the lines of "I know a man with a pacemaker and he's worried" - but they seemed impervious to any facts about the units' incredibly low power usage, the wavelength they use, etc.

The usual media approach is to focus on whoever sounds most indignant or loudest, which is why activists of all stripes get attention, regardless of whether their argument have basis or public support. Happily, I didn't have to take that route here.