The battle over a controversial power line is being waged this week at public hearings in Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick Counties.
It pits experts in the energy business who say it’s a question of demand against landowners who say their livelihoods are threatened by the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project.
Theresa Widger with Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), the New Jersey company that would build the transmission line, had the job Tuesday night of making the public hearing in Hunt Valley on the MPRP run smoothly.
“I am a feelings person,” Widger said at the start of the hearing. “I can feel the energy in the room.”
That proved to be an understatement.
Weida Stoecker grows watermelons, cantaloupes and strawberries in Northern Baltimore County. The proposed transmission line would cut through her property.
“You are tearing up the livelihood of a lot of farmers in Baltimore County, Carroll and Frederick,” Stoecker said. “Where do you think we’re going to be buying our food? We produce it here and we sell it to you guys.”
Stoecker and others fear that land would be seized for the 70 mile transmission line. Also that it would wipe out forests and farmland.
Rebecca Sparks said, “We see time and again what kind of world we create when we take shortcuts that prioritize profit over people and I’m sick of that world and I’m ready for a new one.”
The anger over the project was palpable. At times people in the crowd hurled curse words and called the PSEG officials thieves.
But PSEG said it’s a simple matter of supply and demand.
Jason Kalwa, the project manager, said demand is increasing while Maryland imports about 40% of its energy, adding there’s nothing wrong with that.
“It’s why we’re fortunate to rely on a regional grid that connects states that maybe produce more than they use and states that use more than they produce,” Kalwa said.
The transmission line would connect Maryland to Pennsylvania, an energy exporter.
Mike Kayes, a consultant for PSEG, shot down a couple of solutions that have been proposed by opponents, like using existing power lines.
“The lines that you’re looking at can’t really handle the additional capacity, Kayes said.
He added burying 70 miles of transmission line won’t work either.
“The technology for doing that is not even available,” Kayes said.
An added complication, according to PSEG, is that in a push to move to green energy, Maryland is mothballing fossil fuel power plants, which also is squeezing supply.
But the hundreds of people in the room were having none of it.
At one point, Frederick County resident Betsy McFarland turned her back on the panel from PSEG and directly addressed the crowd.
McFarland said, “If they try to negotiate with you, if they try to pressure you, if they want to come on your property or have a real estate agent come on your property, just say no.”
Joanne Frederick, a founding board member of the group STOP MPRP said, “There is not any amount of information, nor is there any amount of money that will make this project acceptable to the people in Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick Counties.”
At a news conference before the hearing, State Sen. Chris West, a Republican, said he plans to introduce half a dozen bills in the 2025 General Assembly related to energy demand. One would require large data centers, which are in part fueling the need for the transmission line, to provide their own power.
“So it won’t be taking it down off of the grid and depriving Maryland residents of the electricity we need in our daily lives,” West said.
West also will propose delaying the MPRP while the state studies its future energy needs.
Last month, PSEG released the proposed route for the transmission line.
The company was picked by PJM Interconnection, which manages the power grid in the District of Columbia and 13 states, including Maryland.
The final decision on MPRP rests with the Maryland Public Service Commission.
There is another public hearing Thursday night, this one at the Brunswick Fire Company in Frederick County starting at 6 p.m.
