I strongly oppose the proposed massive expansion of high-voltage power lines through much of our region's rural and agricultural areas. The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) — a roughly 70-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line proposed by PSEG and routed through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick counties — would carve a permanent scar across working farmland, forest, and family property. Many landowners learned about it only when surveyors started asking to come onto their land. That is not how we should treat the people who feed our state and steward its open spaces.
Here is what frustrates me most: this is a problem Maryland created for itself. The grid operator, PJM, says new transmission is needed because demand is climbing — driven in large part by enormous new data centers — at the very same time the state's energy policies are forcing reliable, in-state generation offline. The Brandon Shores plant near Baltimore is already being kept running past its planned retirement under a costly 'must-run' (RMR) arrangement precisely because the grid cannot afford to lose that power. We are paying premium rates to keep a plant we told to close, while being told we must also tear up farmland to import electricity from somewhere else.
“We're paying premium rates to keep open a plant we told to close — while being asked to tear up farmland to import the very power we already had.”
There is a simpler, more honest solution — keep Brandon Shores and our other dependable generation online. It's time to demand that energy in Maryland be a diversified portfolio of reliable, affordable options instead of a one-way bet that leaves us dependent on imports and vulnerable to blackouts. When you generate power close to where it's used, you don't need to bulldoze a 70-mile corridor to bring it in. Energy policy should keep the lights on and bills down for working families — not chase mandates that do the opposite.
The stakes for District 7A and our neighbors are real. Independent estimates and PJM's own warnings make clear that ratepayers will shoulder the cost of these projects through higher electric bills, even as the reliability picture grows tighter. Families and seniors on fixed incomes in Middle River, Perry Hall, White Marsh, and across eastern Baltimore County already feel squeezed by the cost of living. They should not be the ones paying for Annapolis's energy mistakes.
This fight is not over, and your voice matters. The project sits before the Maryland Public Service Commission as Case No. 9748, and the PSC must decide whether to grant the certificate the developer needs. Public comment is a real and impactful part of that process. I am urging every constituent — and your family, friends, and neighbors — to submit comments to the PSC stating your opposition. You can file and search public comments through the Commission's website and reference Case No. 9748 directly.
I will continue to stand with the landowners, farmers, and ratepayers who are bearing the brunt of these decisions. Property rights, affordable energy, and local control are not competing values — they are the foundation of a state that works for the people who live in it. Let's protect our farmland, keep our reliable power online, and stop forcing families to pay more for less.
