The missive was discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilman Steve McKay Councilwoman MC Keegan-Ayer
Frederick, Md (KM) The Frederick County Council put off a vote on a letter to be sent to the Public Service Commission expressing opposition to the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. That’s a 70-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line authorized by PJM, the regional grid’s manager, to extend from southern Pennsylvania through Baltimore County, and Carroll County, and end at the Doubs substation in Adamstown in Frederick County.
The Council put off that decision until next week to allow the County’s Executive’s Office an opportunity to review the letter, and Councilmembers to make some changes in the wording.
Councilwoman MC Keegan-Ayer said she was a little concerned about the tone of the letter. She addressed her comments to Councilman Steve McKay who drafted it. “So I would just tell you from my experience with the PSC: if you come in very strongly, they don’t listen to you. They basically say ‘we have this authority. Do not tell us how to do our job,'” Keegan-Ayer said.
But Councilman McKay said the county needs to send a strong letter to the PSC. “We have a legitimate and expected voice in their proceedings,. and we do want to have a strong statement of opposition on the record,” he said.
McKay said he has been to some meetings held in the region on the MPRP, and he says he’s heard from residents and land owners whose properties could be adversely impacted if the line runs across their properties. “They are scared. They are angry,” he said. “They’re worried about their very livelihoods if not the life they built for themselves on their properties, and what this project could mean.”
Keegan-Ayer said it would probably be better to tone down the letter to the PSC. “You can be as strongly committed to voicing the concerns of your constituents. But you can do it in a way that is not quite such a poke in the eye to the PSC,” she said.
The PSC is the state agency that will decide whether this project will move forward and receive a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, or it can turn down the project.
McKay, Councilman Mason Carter and Council President Brad Young have already come out in opposition to the project.
By Kevin McManus