The California Public Utilities Commission has held over its consideration of a proposal to allow Pacific Gas & Electric customers to opt out of using wireless SmartMeters.

The commission was set to discuss PG&E’s opt-out proposal, which the company created last year at the direction of Commission Chair Michael Peevey, at its Thursday morning meeting in San Francisco.

However, CPUC spokesman Andrew Kotch said the commission decided to hold the item over.

He said it has now been set for the commission’s meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

This week the Lake County Board of Supervisors joined several other counties across the Bay Area and North Coast in signing a petition to ask the CPUC to delay a decision, as Lake County News has reported.

The petition asks for the CPUC to take more time to conduct public hearings with stakeholders, and faults the PG&E proposal for requiring higher fees for customers wanting to opt out and ignoring “the longstanding controversy and concern about the health impacts associated with electro-magnetic fields.”

Last year the Board of Supervisors and the city councils of Clearlake and Lakeport passed temporary moratoriums on SmartMeter installations.

The CPUC said at the time that such moratoriums were solely within its power to pass and enforce, and that it didn’t plan to stop the installations.

PG&E also said it would not honor the local moratoriums, although it did allow customers to be put on a delayed installation list.

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