[Baltimore Sun] Baltimore County Council to vote on resolution condemning transmission project
Three Baltimore County council members have proposed a resolution for Baltimore County to condemn a 70-mile power line project that they say will ruin farmland, seize private homes and lower property values.
The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) was first announced in December, when regional transmission operator PJM awarded a contract to the New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) for development. The proposed 500,000-volt transmission line would start in Harford County and cross Baltimore and Carroll counties to provide power for the growing number of data centers in northern Virginia and Frederick County, where it is expected to terminate in Adamstown.
Councilman Wade Kach, a Timonium Republican, introduced the resolution Tuesday with support from his fellow Republican, Councilman David Marks of Upper Falls, and Council Chair Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat. The three said they were immediately concerned about both short- and long-term environmental impacts from construction. Three more council members signed on as sponsors during Tuesday’s meeting, guaranteeing the council will pass the nonbinding resolution at its next legislative session Oct. 21.
PSEG has not yet finalized a route for the transmission line, but proposed routes would touch upon land outside the Urban-Rural Demarcation Line, a county preservation policy that prevents development in the county’s rural and agricultural areas in northern Baltimore County. Kach said one proposed route would effect the Prettyboy Reservoir, which provides much of the Baltimore metropolitan area’s drinking water.
In a letter last month to Frederick County leaders, PSEG project manager Jason Kalwa said there would be more “rolling brown-outs and blackouts” if the transmission line didn’t go into effect by June 2027.
PSEG said on its website that it would submit an application to PSC by the end of the year for permission to construct the transmission line, which could include eminent domain rights. The organization said it “may” seek that power but would only consider it “as a last resort.”
“We look forward to engaging more with the public and receiving their feedback when we present our proposed route in the near future,” PSEG spokesperson William Smith said via email.
While he has not officially taken a position, County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said earlier this summer he opposed any effort to seize private homes.
“The use of eminent domain often leads to the displacement of residents and business, and could be especially harmful to our county’s agricultural community,” he wrote to Kalwa and PSEG state government affairs representative James Gilroy on July 31. “We appreciate your commitment to only consider eminent domain as an option of last resort, but we prefer this measure be taken off the table completely.”
Kach questioned why the company couldn’t utilize existing rights-of-way instead.
“I think I know the answer,” he said Tuesday. “Profit. That’s the answer.”
Councilman Todd Crandell, a Dundalk Republican, called the prospect of PSEG seizing private homes without compensation “un-American,” which earned him a smattering of applause from observers at Tuesday’s council meeting. He, Julian Jones, and Pat Young asked to be added as sponsors.
“The MPRP would cross and likely permanently disrupt preserved greenfields, forest and stream buffers, passive and active open space, and farmland,” the resolution says, and also listed potential soil erosion and damage to nearby property from construction. “Taken together, this will likely lead to a reduction in local farming in Baltimore County and property values of the county’s important agricultural area.”
The resolution is largely symbolic, since the Maryland Public Service Commission, the state utility regulator, must approve the project.
Nonetheless, the council members said they expected PSEG to submit its development plans to the county and ask for an environmental study to be performed. They also encouraged the General Assembly to require Maryland public utilities to submit biannual plans for state review and encouraged legislators to create a planning group that would “play a key role in planning and coordinating the electric transmission system.”
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