A decision to allow access to private properties across three counties in Maryland is heating up.
Maryland residents angered by a court decision to allow developer PSEG Renewable Transmission to access their properties have filed an appeal.
They say they will continue to fight the power line build, dubbed the Piedmont Reliability Project, which aims to eventually place 70 miles of new overhead, 500,000-volt power lines across Baltimore, Frederick and Carroll counties.
“It’s going to start at the top of my hill, take out that forest there, which is an old-growth oak forest,” landowner Brandon Hill told CBS News Baltimore. “It’s going to cut across my field here, render this whole field here not usable.”
A study by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said in November that it believes the project will damage wetlands, disturb the bay’s natural water quality and habitat, and harm forests that are already protected land.
The court was a responding to PSEG’s Temporary Right to Entry filing, which asked it to allow access to more than 90 private properties to install and plan the power lines.
PSEG says that Maryland needs new lines to create enough energy for state residents, who already face some of the highest utility bills in the nation, but residents and their attorneys disagree.
“For a project that really doesn’t help the grid, that really impacts their properties without great benefit to Maryland,” Attorney Susan Euteneuer said.
