Ratepayers could pay for failed power line projects, Marylanders call for federal action

PARKTON, Md. (WBFF) — Some Maryland residents along a proposed 70-mile high-voltage greenfield powerline project are furious that they could end up paying for the project even if it is rerouted, abandoned, or defeated.

Joanne Frederick, the founding board member of the citizen-led opposition group Stop MPPR, told Spotlight on Maryland on Thursday at her home in Fruitland, Md., that awareness is rising among those affected by the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) that its developer is likely to earn millions, regardless of the initiative’s future.

I think this is the biggest issue,” Frederick said. “We have to just stop, push pause, and look at the entire ecosystem, the FERC regulations included, and create the right system for the future of this nation.”

FERC, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, was created by Congress in 1977 as an independent commission of the U.S. Department of Energy to oversee the nation’s emerging energy industry.

A federal regulation known as the Abandoned Plants Incentive is one FERC rule that Frederick mentioned may have encouraged the New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) to “speculate” and bid with the region’s grid operator to build the MPRP.

Frederick told Spotlight on Maryland that current energy priorities, including a shift by some states to renewable energy sources and the widespread adoption of data centers, have undergone significant changes since many of the organization’s regulations were enacted.

“You can decide, you as a transmission builder or a utility, can decide to dream up a project,” Frederick said. “Whether that project is truly needed or truly not needed, it’s not important.”

“[I]f that project fails and ultimately does not go into service, the ratepayers pay the entire bill for all of that money you spent from dreaming up the project, to finally deciding the project isn’t going to happen,” Frederick added.

According to FERC publications on the regulation, the Abandoned Plants Incentive was crafted to help utility companies mitigate risk and recover costs to ensure the security of the nation’s electricity grid. FERC’s hearing records show that PSEG was successfully awarded this incentive for the MPRP.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the system, and we should stop these projects, we should stop the MPRP, and we should stop taking the money off the backs of hard-working farmers across Maryland to enrich a utility company out of New Jersey,” Frederick said. “It is madness.”

Spotlight on Marylandreported in December that the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee (TEAC) abruptly announced a change to the MPRP during its monthly stakeholder meeting. A committee member stated that the future transmission line may bypass the originally planned substation connection in Frederick, Md., directly linking Pennsylvania power lines to the data corridor in Northern Virginia.

“The MPRP project has not changed substantially,” Susan Buehler, PJM’s then-spokesperson, told Spotlight on Maryland in December. “[T]he change involves tying the MPRP line coming from the east with a line heading south directly and bypassing the Doubs substation in Maryland.”

TEAC is an advisory group established by PJM Interconnection in 2011 to realize the grid operator’s vision of expanding power line transmission across its 14 regional states and Washington, D.C.

RELATED | Md. Environmental Trust land threatened by MPRP lawsuit, AG Anthony Brown and MDNR silent

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Frederick echoed many of the concerns FERC Commissioner Mark Christie wrote about in his dissent to PSEG’s award of incentives for its Maryland Piedmont project.

“As I have consistently stated, the Abandoned Plant Incentive is nothing more than a transfer of wealth from consumers to transmission developers and risk from developers to consumers,” Commissioner Christie wrote. “The longer the Commission does nothing to address these unfair transfers of wealth and risk, the more consumers are exploited.”

Les White, a small farm owner in Parkton, Md., whose property could be cut in half by the MPRP, said he is frustrated with the federal government’s inaction on modernizing energy regulations.

“I am paying greatly with defending [a recent PSEG] lawsuit,” White said. “Hopefully, when they’re not successful, our rates are going to go up to cover their costs of exploring this project.”

White was one of more than 90 Maryland property owners served with a federal lawsuit filed by PSEG on April 15. The lawsuit seeks immediate access to survey and appraise lots along the proposed MPRP path. PSEG claims in the federal complaint that its contractors have been denied entry to properties to perform required surveys necessary for obtaining state development permits.

RELATED | Maryland property owner says ‘little guys are standing up’ amid federal MPRP lawsuit

White told Spotlight on Maryland he remains determined to build a local brewery. He has always envisioned it as a mainstay of English-style drafts on his farm along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.

The farmer said that his dream for the future brewery has inspired him to join hundreds of residents from Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties in the effort to reroute or cancel the MPRP. White added that he seeks federal changes to protect property rights and ratepayers’ wallets.

“It’s not just these three counties in Maryland, it’s a federal issue,” White said. “It’s definitely a national issue.”

There needs to be some legislation more focused on property owners’ rights and doesn’t give as much power to these utility companies to think they own everything and come and do whatever they want,” White added.

Frederick said that providing solutions to meet the nation’s rapidly growing energy demands, essential for maintaining competitiveness in the global artificial intelligence, data center, and electrification sectors, must become a national priority.

“The president of the country can come out tomorrow and put a stop to this project and put a stop to the regulation, as it exists, until we have an opportunity to come together and make it better,” Frederick said.

A spokesperson for PSEG denied Spotlight on Maryland’s requests for comment on Thursday.

Follow Gary Collins with Spotlight on Maryland on X. Do you have news tips on this story or others? Send news tips to gmcollins@sbgtv.com.

Spotlight on Maryland is a collaboration between FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun.