On February 20, Director of Intergovernmental Relations Dominic Butchko testified before the Economic Matters Committee in support of HB 657 – Public Utilities – Alternatives to Construction of New Transmission Lines.
This bill calls for additional considerations and requirements for transmission lines and requires the consideration of alternative routes.
The 2025 Maryland General Assembly is facing a historic number of complex generational challenges. One of the loudest issues to arise has been Maryland opposition to the Piedmont Reliability Project. The Project, which crosses Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties, effectively creates an “extension cord” across some of our state’s prime agricultural lands, providing Pennsylvania-generated energy to Virginia-based data centers, with little direct benefit to Marylanders.
As transmission infrastructure upgrades may uniquely be accomplished by upgrading existing lines or using existing land, counties join the sponsor in wanting to protect the finite number of conserved lands. This is commonsense legislation which seeks to address conflicts between Maryland’s growing demand for energy and billions invested into other pro-climate policies to date.
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