Govt closes in on our trash cans and the heat and the....

  So the EPA is trying to get more control of our lives; they want more ability to regulate our lives in ways that are "sustainable."
  What is that, you might ask?

  POed Patriot has pointed out several times that the smart grid Obama's administration is attempting to install across this country will be responsible for monitoring your usage and "recommending" changes based on your behavior patterns.   

  From a government website:

Utilities, energy service providers, and manufacturers will also benefit by learning how customers use and manage their devices and energy management systems. Further, this standard will foster innovation as established companies and start-ups develop new products and services tailored to the energy-use behaviors and objectives of consumers. The standard is "Internet-friendly," and its applications will include enabling customers to view and understand their energy usage and cost using local access devices and over the Internet.

Customers will benefit from energy usage information that enables them to make better decisions and take other actions consistent with the goals of Sections 1301 and 1305 of EISA. An understanding of energy usage informs better decisions about energy use and conservation, and is the basis for performance feedback on the operation of customer‐owned energy management systems and understanding device energy usage and management.

  See, this is for YOUR benefit.
  POed patriot:

So in May of 2008 when we all laughed because President Obama said:
“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times..” 

Little did we realize he was talking about the Smart Grid and Electric Vehicles and that he was going to make it all happen. 

  Certainly this grid will be used to determine the amount of money you pay for electricity based on your usage of the internet, your icemaker, the heat and air conditioning....it will also be used to help shape your behavior.
  While the Republicans may be focusing on regaining the Senate rather than the presidency, Obama's EPA is a primary example of why he needs to be defeated in the next election. 
  When he lost Congress, Obama swore that what he couldn't do with Congress he would do by executive order and through his czars.
  Fox News is reporting that the EPA is making a power grab:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to change how it analyzes problems and makes decisions, in a way that would give it vastly expanded power to regulate businesses, communities and ecosystems in the name of “sustainable development,” the centerpiece of a global United Nations conference slated for Rio de Janeiro next June.

EPA commissar Lisa Jackson claims:

Jackson compared the new approach, it would articulate to “the difference between treating disease and pursuing wellness.” It was, she said, “a new opportunity to show how environmentally protective and sustainable we can be,” and would affect “every aspect” of EPA’s work.

So the EPA feels they have discovered a niche in the law that allows them to do what they need in anticipation of future problems: 

Whatever EPA does with its suggestions, the study emphasizes, will be “discretionary.” But the study urges EPA to “create a new culture among all EPA employees,” and hire an array of new experts in order to bring the sustainability focus to every corner of the agency and its operations. Changes will move faster “as EPA’s intentions and goals in sustainability become clear to employees,” the study says

  So they'll hire more and numerous "experts" to help determine that you should be fined $300 for not having a lid on your trash can. The key to the new regs will be fortune telling:

The catch, the study recognizes, is that under the new approach the EPA becomes more involved than ever in predicting the future.
“Forecasting is unavoidable when dealing with sustainability, but our ability to do forecasting is limited,” the document says.

   In Queens, a gentleman earned a $100 fine for putting his trash out 39 minutes early.

 Because local governments, as well as state and national, need more money, y'all.

  My FoxNY:

The Failure to Store Receptacle summons from the agent stated: "I did observe three 30 gallon plastic can(s) placed out on the public sidewalk on a non-collection day. 

Janson says, "We've lived here 30 years and always put the garbage out Monday and Thursday for Tuesday and Friday pickup." 

It is legal to put out the trash cans the day before pick-up but the time of the day matters. City sanitation rules say the cans can be put out no earlier than 4:00 p.m. from October 1st to April 1st. 

Janson's ticket was written at 3:27 p.m. 

"What, do they sit down the block waiting so they can go catch all of those criminals?" Janson asked

  So note that the city is employing someone to literally write tickets which will undoubtedly employ someone to write tickets. That's the government way, after all. 

   Queens isn't the only place that's ticketing garbage. Again from MyFoxNY, we learn that not having a LID on your can is an offense, even if you don't own a garbage can!

A 91-year-old grandmother is having to fight a ticket for not having a lid on her trash can. The only problem is that Blanche Pierce doesn't even have a trash can.
Pierce says she's lived in the Bay Ridge Brooklyn home for 60 years. She says she hasn't owned a trash can for 10 years. Her nephew takes the trash from her home every week so she was surprised to see the ticket issued by the Dept. of Sanitation.

  You'll be glad to know her nephew a retired NYPD cop is fighting the ticket for her but what you might find interesting is where you go to fight the ticket:

When contacted by Fox 5 News, the sanitation department responded by saying anyone who gets a ticket, can take it up with the environmental control board.

  Note: the environmental control board.  

Ah, but that's New York City, you think, where 40% of the state of New York resides in a few square miles. This will never happen to our little town.

  In fact, the somewhat hysterical stopsmartmeters.org monitors the government's attempt to install smart meters in the homes of customers.

  In California, customers who claim to experience ill effects from the smart meters have removed the meters and replaced them with analog meters.

  In response, PG & E shut off their power. 

  After all, they've been planning this for a year since they installed the meters:

More Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers who fall behind on their bills will have their power shut off once the utility installs SmartMeters throughout its territory, the company predicted in a recent government filing. 

The advanced, digital meters allow San Francisco's PG&E to turn service off or on without sending a crew to a customer's home. As a result, PG&E expects to shut off 85 percent of the customers eligible for disconnection in 2011, according to the company. In 2008, just 37 percent of customers eligible for disconnection actually lost service.