No smart-meter option: Hydro

Vancouver city council is deciding whether to ask B.C. Hydro to allow residents to opt out of Hydro’s controversial smart-meter program.

But Hydro said Tuesday that no such option exists. “The bottom line is we’re not offering an opt-out program,” said Hydro’s Cindy Verschoor.

Verschoor said customers can choose to have the meter installed in another location — although the customer would have to bear the cost of that change.

So far, nobody has done that.

As for concerns over the safety of radio-frequency emissions, Hydro pointed to a report from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control that tested the new meters in January. That report, which is available at http:// bit.ly/om2occ, said that “B.C. Hydro smart-meter RF [radio-frequency] emissions outside homes are lower than the RF exposure associated with some household devices, e.g. baby monitors, cellphones and microwave ovens.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Gregor Robertson’s motion on Tuesday requiring that pipeline operators and oil tankers operating in Vancouver harbour carry enough liability insurance to cover the cost of any spill was passed on to the planning, transportation and environment committee, which meets today.

The issue has arisen because of Kinder Morgan’s interest in increasing the capacity of its oil pipeline from Alberta to the Lower Mainland from 300,000 barrels a day to 850,000 a day.

As a result, the number of tankers in Vancouver harbour could go up five-fold.