Dive Summary:

• The City-Parish Council in Louisiana gave preliminary approval for a $12.20 monthly fee for utility customers who don’t want to have their meters upgraded; the council will consider the ordinance’s final adoption during its Oct. 16 meeting.
• The fee is primarily for the continued reading of the old meters and will affect 435 customers of the Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) who have opted out thus far, which is 0.7 of the total customers scheduled to receive the new meters.
• The LUS’ smart meter program is funded by a federal grant and includes the installation of 62,000 smart meters by the end of the year.

From the article:

Opponents of smart meters who decided to not have the new devices installed may soon be forced to pay a $12.20 monthly fee to have the old meters manually read.

The City-Parish Council gave preliminary approval to an ordinance adopting the new fee during its meeting Tuesday night. The council will consider the ordinance's final adoption during its Oct. 16 meeting. ...