On December 31, 2024, PSEG submitted an application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP). This started the official process to determine if the MPRP, a 70-mile transmission line delivering electricity from Pennsylvania through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties to satisfy increasing demands for energy by data centers in Virginia, will be built, and if so, exactly where it could go.

Residents who live on or near the proposed MPRP route are opposed to the project, which would create a permanent scar across farmland, preserved land, and residential land. Property owners face the prospect of having their land taken through the use of eminent domain. Sensitive environmental land, wildlife habitat, and historic properties would be damaged.

Others are opposed because bucolic views would be permanently ruined. The loss of permanently preserved land poses an existential threat to land preservation in Maryland. Just last year, Governor Moore announced that Maryland had already met its goal of preserving 30% of its land by 2030. But who in the future will want to take the step of giving up development rights in perpetuity if the land could eventually be developed anyway?

A decrease in property values. Businesses that are worth less. An increase in the price all Marylanders pay for energy. There are many reasons the MPRP in its current form should not be allowed to move forward.

There are many ways to participate in the CPCN process. You can subscribe to the docket, receiving email alerts about case updates, by registering your email address on the PSC website here. The MPRP is case number 9773.

Evidentiary and public hearings in each affected county will be held. The PSC has not yet announced dates for hearings. Written or oral comments can be prepared now, however, focusing on issues like environmental impacts, effects on businesses, i.e., decreased ability to farm or operate an agritourism business, and harm to residences and communities. Photographs and hard data will be useful to prove your case.

The PSC has announced that parties that want to intervene – that is, individuals and organizations that want to participate in the case and the PSC’s hearings – have until February 17 to declare their intention. Individuals may represent themselves, but businesses must be represented by a lawyer.

 

PENDING LEGISLATION

Some Maryland legislators have or will be submitting bills that could affect the MPRP, other transmission lines, and energy policy in Maryland.

Senator Benjamin Brooks has filed SB34, which would require the PSC to consider the impact of transmission lines on preserved properties, and SB189, which would prohibit the taking of property that is subject to an ag or conservation easement by using eminent domain.

Delegate Mangione has submitted HB81, which requires the fair market value of an ag property taken in a condemnation proceeding to be 350% of the highest appraisal value of the property.

Delegate Crosby and Senator Lewis Young have filed HB270 and SB116, which would require the Department of the Environment, the Maryland Energy Administration, and the University of Maryland School of Business, in coordination with the Department of Legislative Services, to conduct an analysis of the likely environmental, energy, and economic impacts of data center development in the State; and requiring the Department of Legislative Services to coordinate preparation of the final report to be submitted to the Governor and the General Assembly by September 1, 2026.

Senator West plans to submit six pieces of legislation that would create a task force to develop a realistic electricity plan for Maryland; authorize electric companies to acquire, construct or lease, and operate, electricity generating facilities; allow natural gas energy generation facilties to be permitted, built, and operated until Maryland supplies 50% of its energy demand needs through renewable energy; require data centers to build power generation facilities; require the PSC to require a grid optimization study; and change Maryland’s eminent domain statute to prohibity quick take on land subject to an easement in order to acquire land for an electrical transmission line.

To submit testimony for any piece of legislation, you must sign up for an account at MyMGA.