Rural and suburban families from Baltimore, Frederick, and Carroll Counties waited in a line extending down the road to enter a gathering hall at a local senior center, where a company named "Public Service Enterprise Group" held a community information session regarding the "Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project." Some of the people in line had heard of the project by word-of-mouth less than 48 hours prior to attending the July 12th event. Despite being formed on July 9th, 2024, the facebook group "STOP MPRP" had a large presence as a collective of concerned citizens at the event. The group reached 7,000 members the day after the event.
The project's stated goal is to improve the reliability of the grid, which distributes power to datacenters in neighboring Virginia. Rather than building renewable power closer to the datacenters, the project instead calls for fossil fuel derived energy to be distributed across Maryland along 70 miles of transmission lines out of Pennsylvania, which does not have the same green energy initiatives as the impacted states. Representatives from PSEG answering questions at the event included engineers and contractors, some of whom had been assigned to the project for under 31 days. The representatives at the session stated they had not anticipated such a large turnout for the two-hour event, based on the attendance of the first events earlier in the week. Many residents left feeling frustrated that they could not find policy and decision makers to answer their questions.
The project is funded by additional tariffs across Maryland and surrounding states. Local attorneys encouraged residents to consider forming a non-profit entity to pool resources for a looming legal battle, that PSEG has indicated may include the acquisition of property rights through the governmental power of eminent domain. One of the frequently-asked-questions on PSEG's website characterizes eminent domain as a less-preferred alternative to their own negotiation process. Residents within the direct path of the project stand to lose rights to multi-generation farmland, including trees that are considered "a gentleman's life work," as described in a letter to the regional transmission operator's CEO.
In other states, there has been similar community backlash against "Proposal 853," which outlines the plan to connect Loudoun County's "Data Center Alley" to fossil fuel power generation in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
Ideally, no eminent domain. The barrier to using it should be so high that it's almost never used.