Legislator Plans To Introduce Bills Dealing With MPRP

The project has generated a lot of controversy.,Senator Chris West  (R) Baltimore-Carroll Counties.Frederick, Md (KM) There’s been a lot of controversy over the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. That’s a proposed 70-mile long high powered electric transmission line expected to go through northern Baltimore County, the center of Carroll County, and southern Frederick which includes the New Market area, Ijamsville, Buckeystown and Adamstown, ending at the Doubs substation.Many residents were caught unaware when the Public Service Enterprise Group announced earlier this year  it was planning the build the line.’State Senator Chris West, who represents Baltimore and Carroll Counties, says he plans to introduce a bill in the 2025 General Assembly which would set up a task force to examine Maryland’s electricity needs. “That bill will require the Public Service Commission to defer any decision on new electrical transmission lines until the earliest of May 1st, 2026 by which time the General Assembly will have a chance to evaluate the recommendations that this task force will develop and then to enact legislation into law,” he says.PSEG has said it hopes to file its application with the Public Service Commission before the end of the year. Senator West says he also  hopes to have this bill drafted and placed on line before 2024 comes to an end. “Hopefully, that being the case, they {PSC] will defer ruling a on any application until after the General Assembly adjourns this coming year,” he says. “If we pass that bill, they will be ordered not to rule on any applications until the middle of 2026.”The PSC   gives  approval or deny applications for power lines in Maryland.One of the concerns of some residents in the three affected counties is that their properties could be seized by PSEG in order to build this transmission line. “The only way that the land is going to be acquired  by the people who want to build the transmission line is through the process called  eminent domain. I’ve got a bill that’s going to put significant restrictions on the eminent domain powers that can be conferred on this organization if they’re acquiring land for electrical transmission lines in Maryland,” says Senator West.He says many of these property owners have placed their lands in agricultural preservation.A couple of years ago, the General Assembly approved a bill to prohibit electric utilities from owning  power-generating  plants. Senator West says it was a way to encourage the private sector to build and operate power plants which would sell electricity to the utilities. But he says that’s not what’s happening> “And of I have a bill that will take off that prohibition against Maryland utilities from getting involved in the electrical generating business, and let them get involved in it once again,” he says.At one time, Potomac Edison got a lot of the power it provides to customers from coal-fired plants. But West says the General Assembly passed legislation years ago that says no more coal-powered plants. He says natural gas is a possibility. “We have natural gas in plentiful quantities and it’s cheap. So if we want the cheapest way we can generate electricity these days, other that nuclear, is to burn natural gas,” he says.The goal of this bill is to make Maryland more energy independent. “And indeed it will mandate that they do everything that they can to reverse what’s going on right now which is Maryland importing 40 percent of its electricity from other states, and get that down to less than 25 percent,” West says.The 2025 Maryland General Assembly begins its 90-day session on January 8th.By Kevin McManus