NV Energy Attempts to Turn Nevada from the Silver State into the Extortion State.

Feb. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- The State of Nevada is already suffering from high unemployment and massive foreclosures, and now NV Energy (NVE) wants to add extortion and a protection racket to their list of non-beneficial attributes associated with the state.

NVE has elevated themselves to Mafia wannabees by attempting to extort protection money under the guise of opting out of their smart meter installation.

They want the customers to pay for their unalienable right to protect themselves from illegal surveillance, (4th Amendment) and to protect their health from additional radiation exposure from smart meters. NVE submitted documents to the Nevada Public Utility Commission, (PUC) showing that the money they received from the Department of Energy was in fact under the authority of the Department of Defense for Military Research and Development.

When the military association was disclosed, NVE attempted to feign that it was only a ‘draft’ and therefore, not a final copy.

The anti-smart meter movement led to a dog-and-pony Delphi Technique type Meeting [1], by the PUC under the guise of a workshop for PUC docket 11-10007, [2] which was allegedly created to investigate smart meters.  The PUC Commissioners, who are supposed to be neutral and mediate between the utilities and the public, showed their true alliances during the meetings and consumer sessions. The PUC ‘advisers’ were highly attentive when NVE’s so-called experts were testifying, but, during public comments, they were either chatting amongst themselves or fighting to stay awake.

When the inattentive PUC members were called out on the record, Hearing Officer Nancy Wenzel quickly stopped the comments.  

The so-called legal opinions submitted by the PUC’s legal department were so industry-biased, they should have just fired the state employees and had NVE write up the legal recommendations rather than having duplicate work being done.

The cherry-picking of research papers by the PUC legal department was the most pathetic attempt at a legal opinion that anyone could imagine.

NVE is nothing short of a monopolistic corporate sham which assaults the public and extorts money under the guise they have to maintain the over-inflated lifestyles of their senior management, while making sure their investors are well protected at the expense of their customers.

The fees being proposed by NVE are a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by trying to extort fees from disabled people for accommodation requests. There is nothing in the ADA that requires a disabled person to pay for an accommodation.

NVE, in a surreptitious maneuver, is using ratepayers’ money to promote ads on a local CBS affiliate station, KLAS.  One would think the CBS affiliate would see that the expense is not warranted and seek other advertising revenue.

NVE is not allowed to use ratepayers’ revenues for advertising.  Those expenses are supposed to come out of shareholders’ revenue.  Then, NVE in an attempt to recover expenses, they file rate increase documents with the PUC under the inappropriate premise they need to provide a certain return on investment to their shareholders.

NVE takes ratepayers’ revenue and makes donations to political candidates and charities, while most likely taking a tax credit for the charitable deductions to 501(c)(3) organizations.  At the same time, NVE fails to make a concerted effort to disclose that their upper management sits on the boards of those charities who are receiving the donations.  For example, the following NVE executives are on the board of the United Way of Southern Nevada [3]:

Paul Kaleta
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Shared Services
NV Energy

Punam Mathur
Vice President, Human Resources
NV Energy

The PUC has its own little ‘areas’ of concern in placating NVE.  

Hearing Master Wenzel’s husband, Mark, is an attorney who handles personal injury cases. On his firm’s biographical page, he lists ‘electrical injuries’. [4] So, one could extrapolate that Wenzel has a vested interest in seeing that these smart meters are installed, as she will most likely benefit from the injuries via her husband’s case load of injured clients.

Commissioner Rebecca Wagner’s partner, Lesley Greninger, is one of the owners at Pro Energy Consultants of Reno-Tahoe.[5] The Nevada Secretary of State filings show that Pro Energy Consultants are also associated with Home Star Building Solutions, Inc. [6]  One can speculate that Pro Energy Consultants would endorse the smart meter as a way to manage energy usage.

We are still vetting Commissioners Burtenshaw and Noble.

The PUC’s General Counsel, Jan Juanita Cohen, was notified that the fees NVE are requesting fit the legal definition of extortion, coercion and economic duress.  Since she has been notified, she cannot claim plausible deniability if she has to come to the defense of the PUC.

Cohen was informed of the following:

Coercion as defined by Black’s Law Dictionary is:
“Conduct that constitutes the improper use of economic power to compel another to submit to the wishes of another who wields it.”

Along with economic duress:
“An unlawful coercion to perform by threatening financial at a time when one cannot exercise free will.”

By recommending, endorsing, or approving any type of coercion by the implementation of these extortion fees, there might be a problem trying to justify why it was done under economic power by the PUC when the ratepayers cannot exercise their free will.

Since the PUC is a public office and extortion clearly fits this proposed ‘fee,’ according to Blacks Law Dictionary, then it’s important to remind the PUC of the following legal definition :

“The offense committed by a public official who illegally obtains property defined by Blacks: the right to possess, use and enjoy a determinate thing [either a tract of land or chattel] the right of ownership/any external thing over which the rights of possession, use and enjoyment are exercised. back to extortion: obtains property under the color of office esp: an official’s collection of an unlawful fee. The act or practice of obtaining something or compelling some action by illegal means as by force or coercion.”

Corruption and deception have no place in Nevada, when we are trying to attract new businesses to the state.

There is not a single reference in the energy bill under the American Recovery Revitalization Act that allows fees to be charged to customers who choose to opt out of smart meters.

Our property is being intruded upon, they are taking away our right to free will and our humane right to safe housing. And, we have a public entity that is supposed to enforce the law and protect utility customers, but they are instead contemplating the imposition of fees that are tantamount to extortion and a clear violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

On a related note, the PUC in January took a swipe at NVE salaries.  It’s time for the PUC to take the same tough stance against the extortion being presented as an opt out fee/penalty.  Even better and more appropriate would be for the PUC to issue a moratorium on smart meters until the federal study has been completed in 2014, then allow the public to opt ‘in’, as referenced in the federal energy bill.  Other countries, states, counties and cities have made the right choice and issued a moratorium on these dangerous, untested and invasive smart meters. As usual Nevada puts money and backdoor favors first over it’s residents.

Part 1 of 2. Next: PUC admits NVE salaries, bonuses are ‘excessive’, Sensus sued by former hand picked Alabama project manager, along with full disclosure of NVE so called ‘experts’ from Exponent.

[1] http://www.vlrc.org/articles/110.html
[2] http://puc.nv.gov/
[3] http://www.uwsn.org/sup.php?id=6
[4] http://bdjlaw.com/AttorneyProfiles/MarkCWenzel/
[5] http://www.proenergyconsultants.com/locations/reno-nv-energy-auditor
[6] http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/