 Jerry Brown |
Health advocates are begging Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown to veto a bill that would vastly expand cell towers. A law allowing that was passed in September.
“The citizens of California have a right to be safe,” said Laura Allred in an email to Brown yesterday. “Please do everything possible to institute safety measures for the public, said Allred.
The Calif. Brain Tumor Assn. condemned passage of a bill Sept. 13 that allows proliferation of cell towers for the new 4G and 5G cellphone transmitting devices.
The Calif. Assembly voted 46-17 with 18 abstentions for a bill that won’t let local communities block the new generation of devices that are needed every 5-10 houses according to some estimates.
Approval had already been given by the Senate which gets another chance in the next few days to approve minor changes. Opponents see a veto by Gov. Jerry Brown as the only recourse.
CBTA noted that the League of California Cities said the bill “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally strips local authority over public property and shuts out public input and local discretion by eliminating consideration of the aesthetic and environmental impacts of ‘small cells.’”
The bill, the League said, represents “a major shift in telecommunications policy and law by requiring local governments to lease out the public’s property, cap how much cities can lease this space out for, eliminate the ability for cities to negotiate public benefits, the public’s input and full discretionary review in all communities of the state except for areas in coastal zones and historic districts, for the installation of “small cell” wireless equipment.”
Equipment Is Not “Small”
It further said, “Despite the wireless industry’s claim that the equipment would be ‘small’ in their attempt to justify this special permitting and price arrangement solely for their industry, the bill would allow for antennas as large as six cubic feet, equipment boxes totaling 35 cubic feet (larger than previous bill version of 21 cubic feet), with no size or quantity limitations for the following equipment: electric meters, pedestals, concealment elements, demarcation boxes, grounding equipment, power transfer switches, and cutoff switches.”
CBTA said 300 state cities have expressed strong opposition to SB 649, a bill designed to “fast track” the permitting of wireless and small cell telecommunications facilities in local communities. Mayors of six of California's largest cities have sent the AT&T-initiated bill’s sponsor, Senator Ben Hueso, a letter opposing the measure, said CBTA.
Allred Urges Fiber Optic
“Citizens have a right to a safe, secure, reliable, extremely high speed, high capacity and reliable internet,” she told Brown. “Fiber optic broadband delivers all these,” she said.
“Fiber optic broadband is secure, unlike wireless - which should not be trusted with proprietary or confidential information because it broadcasts it everywhere, making hacking easy,” she added.
“Favorable hacking conditions are not safe for economic development, such as confidential communications with a professional, as your health care provider, probate and estate lawyer, financial transactions, online banking, emails, personal documents, and pictures to name a few. Not to mention the severe breach of personal Equifax credit information harming possibly 143 million of people.
Wrote Allred: “As a California citizen and constituent, I respectfully request that our State and local officials do everything in their power and control to ensure the safety of businesses and citizens of the State of California. True economic development cannot occur when vital economic information is not protected.”
State Dropped Ball on Fiber Optics
Following text is from Allred’s email to Brown:
In 1993 the “California First” plan was based on spending $16 billion to rewire the state with fiber optics cable “…replacing the old, in use, copper wiring”.
The cost to bring fiber optics to residential phone customers/ratepayers was estimated at that time to be about $1,000 per household. Is was stated that this money would be “…covered by telephone rates” paid by us the customer. These telephone rates increased 138% from 2008 to 2016, with ancillary services, such as caller ID and Call Waiting increasing 60% to 525%!
The promise in 1993 was to provide broadband services to more than 1.5 million homes by the end of 1996, 5 million homes by the end of the decade.” This was to facilitate “telemedicine” “learning and education” TV, “multi-media” to name a few.
The promise was also made for schools, community colleges and libraries to have computer and video networks. They predicted by the year 2000 every classroom will be wired to handle voice, data and video telecommunications.
Please review the Huffington Post article of August 23, 2017, titled “Californians Paid Billions Extra: The State Assembly Should Investigate AT&T’s Cross-Subsidies”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/599d26bee4b0b87d38cbe637
Also, for your information this Huffington Post article has an important link, explaining California Broadband History.
http://irregulators.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/californiabroadband2006.pdf
Further, the Huffington Post article states in 1993, [t]he new plan…is to just shut off the copper wires and force-march customers onto wireless, where, conveniently, the same company controls the wires that are used to the wireless networks, which were built, in large part, paid for by these customers.”
This first Huffington Post article concluded that what is really needed are investigations and audits of AT&T’s financial books, NOW.
As there is an investigation of Verizon New York by the NY State Public Service Commission that corroborated the Huffington Post findings; that there are massive financial cross-subsidies between and among the wireline state utility and all of the other Verizon affiliates, including the wireless company. AT&T California appears to be doing the same financial dishonesty.
The second article written by the Huffington Post is titled “Expose: AT&T California Fiber Optic Scandal: Billions Charged for Broadband that Never Showed Up.”
This article states that, “[v]irtually no one knows the history of fiber optic broadband in America, much less what happened in their state, even though they were charged thousands of dollars per household. Instead, in 2017, we get embarrassing proposed laws, such as SB-649 in California, which claims that if the State just frees the companies from regulations, they will deliver new, ‘fabulous’, broadband wireless services. These are tied to other bills and new proposed regulations, including current FCC proceedings to ‘shut off the copper’ and replace it with wireless. It is time for investigations, not new gifts to AT&T et al.”
I respectfully request that answers to the Huffington Post conclusions below be sought by all government public officers that hold a position of authority or service involving responsibility to the public.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now doling out money to these same Telecommunication Corporations to offer wireless broadband calling the plan “Connect America Fund (CAF)”, currently at Phase II; offered by AT&T in Amador County.
The fiber optic deployment that has been paid for by landline customers was never completely installed.
“Connect America Fund" (CAF), a plan to provide wireless broadband, is again funded by you and me with our tax dollars.
The proposed 5G actions taken by the Telecommunication Corporations will be another charge to the customers, while eroding local control. Please forward this information for an investigation by the appropriate authority for enforcement and action.
Governor Jerry Brown please VETO California SB 649.Thank you for your attention to this extremely time sensitive matter.
Related posts on EMR Safety
5G Wireless Technology: Major newspater editorials opppose SB 649
Scientists and Doctors Demand Moratorium on 5G
5G Wireless Technology: Is 5G Harmful to Our Health?
5G Wireless Technology: Millimeter Wave Health Effects
Cell Tower Health Effects
Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity
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