I looked up some European studies and copied them off in order to take them with me to the Grain Belt Express Open House the evening of July 17, 2013 in Cameron, Missouri, at the Cameron Community Center.

When my husband and I entered the meeting it was immediately apparent that this was NOT an "open" house. My training as an ad designer had taught me a few lessons in different styles of propaganda and Grain Belt Express was clearly exercising the manipulation tactic called "The Delphi Technique." I had spent the night before with little sleep because of my concern over these lines and seeing this farce being perpetrated on my fellow townspeople didn't put me in a very good mood. I only wanted to know where I could protest. Since these slick Grain Belt con artists are trained to detect dissonance, my husband and I were immediately pulled aside to have our feathers unruffled.

I handed one of my sheets of articles about the health and safety hazards of HVDC power lines to our "helper" and with only a cursory glance at my papers, he immediately began to start telling us the wonders of this line and that there are no risks, blah, blah, blah...  Understanding that I would get NOWHERE with this talking mannequin, I left his little group in his mid-sentence and began handing out my printed literature to the other small groups in the room, and asking them to ask their facilitators about the information within the studies.

When I got to the back of the room, an armed man, wearing Grain Belt clothes, identified himself to my husband as a Cameron police officer. He grabbed my arm HARD and asked me what I was doing. I told him that he was holding me too hard and that he was hurting me. He released his grip slightly and asked me again what I was doing, to which I responded that I was sharing information with others about HVDC lines and their health effects. He told me that I was to stop doing that, to which I told him that I would not and that I was exercising my right to free speech. He then explained to me that that was not allowed here and I needed to leave immediately. When I argued with him he began dragging me out of the meeting. As he was doing this I shouted, "My free speech rights are being violated and if you want to know about the hazards of HVDC towers then READ THIS!" and I threw the papers across the room and onto the floor. (You should have seen the people scramble to read them.)

When this Grain Belt rent-a-cop got me outside he began verbally abusing me and telling me that I had NO FREE SPEECH RIGHTS HERE, and that if I did not leave by the time he counted to 5, then he would take me to the station for disorderly conduct. I left on his count of 4, but several people in the group came out of the meeting to argue with the cop. Free speech is supposed to be protected by our Constitution, according to folks here in the Midwest. Besides, I thought this was an informational meeting between landowners and Grain Belt Express. Not a Grain Belt infomercial.

At about 0840 hours this morning, I observed a white SUV with a Virginia Vanity plate OHAPY DZ in my front yard. The vehicle had a portable orange flashing light affixed to the right front rain gutter.
       Upon checking, the individual, clad in a black pullover shirt, and black knee top Speedo type shorts, waived an electronic device at me. He stated he was from the power company and was there to read the meters. (This is the "uniform" of street thugs, burglars, muggers, MS 13.... keep picking them.)
       The gentleman showed nothing to confirm his position with Potomac Edison, nor did he identify himself.
        I allowed him to complete his errand. Then I asked him if Potomac Edison is requiring meter readers to use their personal vehicles when making their rounds.
        He stated that "Since the merger, everything is all screwed up, and I have to use my vehicle."
        Imagine the scams that could be perpetrated upon the unknowing of all ages by people posing as meter readers. I do not know if my premises were cased for a later visit for less than legal purposes.
        I very much should like to know what explanation Potomac Edison has for this modus operandi. Could not Potomac Edison hire someone from West Virginia to read West Virginia meters?
        I politely suggest that in addition to being more vigilant over your own properties, you should watch for and warn your neighbors, especially those living alone, elderly, or incapacitated.
       

After an interminable number of attempts, I finally breached FORTRESS FIRST ENERGY and reached TODD MEYERS, in house apologist.
       I gave him the same description of the events of 0840 hours yesterday morning.
       He offered the explanation that some meter reading personnel hired since 1 April 2013 may not have Potomac Edison Vehicles.
       Meyers stated that those using personal vehicles "should" have a magnetic door sign identifying the vehicle as representing Potomac Edison. (This vehicle had no such signage.) He further asked if any ID BADGE was displayed. (None was) Meyers stated that the reader should have been wearing a lime green safety vest.(He was not.)
       He kept repeating "You've given me good enough information. I can investigate this. I will call the meter reader and find out what is going on."
      It took me eight calls plus a boat load of web searches to finally get to Meyers.
      The last two individuals who came here to read the meter, months ago, drove pick ups and wore white helmets and lime green safety vests.
    I will be curious to see what comes from this belated effort.
       If Potomac Edison would use local people from the areas to be served, some of these issues might need never arise. Though local people cannot know everyone, they are able to be more easily identified.

    Just had an enlightening conversation with Todd Meyers "Public Relations Specialist with FIRST ENERGY." (That is how Mr. Meyers described his capacity with FIRST ENERGY in our conversation a few minutes ago.)
        I was able to contact the gentleman on the first call, and he doubtless saw who I am from the caller ID. He clearly did not want to talk to me.
        I had to give him another synopsis of the issues of 7 August 2013.
        In a stumbling, hesitating voice, Mr. Meyer stated that he had checked with the Supervisor of the meter reading and found that, indeed, the vehicle and the person are engaged in reading meters for Potomac Edison. He stated that this was determined by conversing with that supervisor from "the information which you supplied, that is the white vehicle with the O HAPPY DAYS (sic) Virginia plate." (Actual plate is OHAPY DZ.).
        Meyers further stated that he had learned that the individual in question had displayed an ID, was wearing a green vest, and had  magnetic signs on the door of the vehicle.
        I asked who was the source of his information, and he was reluctant to tell me, giving a rambling and convoluted answer which I shall not try to duplicate here.
       Meyers went on "That's what I was told happened."
       I asked "Might I ask who is the supervisor of the meter reading for this area?"
       Meyers replied "That is Charity Emmert in the Williamsport office."
       I said "Could you provide me with an email for you and Ms. Emmert that I may inform you, Ms. Emmert, and Potomac Edison that that person is not welcome on my property again for any reason? It appears that person has been less than truthful in this matter."
       MEYERS "You can send the email to me at tmeyer1energy.com, I will see that she gets it. I will forward it to where it needs to go,"
       I suspect that TOADIE MEYERS did not do anything with my complaint, and was surprised to have his bluff called in this manner.

PJM’s first com­pet­i­tive trans­mis­sion project under FERC Order 1000 attracted pro­pos­als from five util­i­ties and three inde­pen­dent developers.

The pro­pos­als – to cor­rect sta­bil­ity issues at Arti­fi­cial Island, home of the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear plants, in Han­cocks Bridge N.J. – ranged from a new 230 kV line and sta­tion (esti­mated cost $54 mil­lion) to two new 500 kV lines (a pro­jected $1.5 bil­lion price tag).

Merger benefits increased significantly from '11 to '12 to '13. As I said, Gary's going to speak more to that, but this is the pretax earnings impact associated with those and you'll see that, that's in excess of $1 billion.

We're also targeting O&M reductions beyond the synergies of between $75 million and $175 million in 2012 and 2013. We expect asset sales in the range of $800 million to $900 million per year, and we expect to reduce debt by $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion over this time period.

...we continue to look for opportunities to reduce O&M. I just want to give you one, very quick example, of what we're doing on the O&M side.

We closed the transaction February 28 of last year. There are roughly 75 major applications that have to get integrated between the 2 companies. For some of the operating savings to occur, those systems have to be integrated. I'm pleased to say that our IT folks are basically going to integrate all of those applications in record time, and they'll make their cut-over shortly. They've had 5 test runs, so you'll see that some of the synergy has been accelerated and some of the synergies too, become, as we integrate our systems. And we're quite pleased with where we are. We'll continue to look for incremental costs. It's kind of our nature. But we're not going to do anything simply for a short-term benefit that puts the company at a longer-term risk. That's just not something we are going to do. Everything we are doing is to place FirstEnergy in the best possible forward position.