‘We’re with you’: Carroll lawmakers, residents agree that proposed transmission line is ‘direct affront to and real assault on our way of life’

Carroll commissioners and state lawmakers who represent the county listened to, and agreed with, residents’ concerns at a meeting Thursday night in Westminster regarding the proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project.

The proposed transmission line would carve a 70-mile-long path through Carroll, Frederick and Baltimore counties. The $424 million project has a proposed date of operation of June 2027.

Jason Kalwa, who manages the energy project for the Public Service Enterprise Group, said last month that the project will provide a much-needed upgrade to the energy grid, which will benefit Carroll residents and others.

More than 750 people attended Thursday’s meeting, 72 of whom signed up to speak, according to Lt. Phill Lawrence of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. The listening session ran from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., with an opportunity to have one-on-one conversations with lawmakers until 10 p.m., at the Agriculture Center in Westminster.

Many speakers expressed concerns about the project’s potential to harm the environment, hamper the economic productivity of Carroll farms, create electromagnetic fields that harm human health, reduce property values, pass on costs to energy consumers, and detract from the beauty of nature. Some articulated a sense of injustice related to land acquisition tactics, such as eminent domain, while others said the project is motivated by corporate greed.

For most of the three-hour meeting, Carroll County Commissioners President Ken Kiler stood onstage at a lectern while speakers approached to address lawmakers for about two minutes each. Listening from a dais behind Kiler, sometimes leaning forward or taking notes while nodding and smiling at particularly pithy comments, sat state Sens. Justin Ready and Chris West; state Dels. Eric Bouchat, April Rose, Josh Stonko and Chris Tomlinson; and County Commissioners Tom Gordon, Michael Guerin, Ed Rothstein and Joe Vigliotti.

Everyone onstage expressed firm opposition to the proposed project.

“We’re here tonight, first of all, to say that we’re with you,” Ready said to the crowd. “That can sound like a cliche, but it’s really true. This particular project is a direct affront to and real assault on our way of life. That’s how we see it.”

Kiler told the crowd that the Board of County Commissioners is unified in its belief in “upholding the principles of protecting owners’ property rights, local control, land use, and permitting authority. Conducting a political decision-making process is critical to our collective successes. We need to fight this together, as Carroll County.”

PJM, the Regional Transmission Organization responsible for operating power systems that provide energy for all of Maryland, has contracted with the Public Service Enterprise Group to complete the project. Baltimore Gas & Electric is among PJM’s member companies.

Thursday’s event was county-sponsored, and PSEG representatives did not attend.

The 500,000-volt transmission line would generate a low-frequency electromagnetic field. The World Health Organization has found that “no adverse health effects from low level, long-term exposure to radio-frequency or power frequency fields have been confirmed.” Electromagnetic fields may produce a heating effect in biological organisms.

Long lines began forming before 2pm at the afternoon information session at Westminster Senior & Community Center regarding the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff photo)