ANNAPOLIS — A House hearing will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday for a bill that aims to exempt wildland designations from areas in the Big Savage Mountain Wildland, Bear Pen Wildland and Dan’s Mountain Wildland for NextEra Energy Transmission MidAtlantic to construct new overhead transmission lines.
House Bill 1270, sponsored by Del. Jim Hinebaugh and cross filed with Sen. Mike McKay’s SB0399, will be presented to the Economic Matters Committee, which typically considers matters including commercial law, insurance regulation, workers’ compensation and alcoholic beverages.
But HB1270 has attracted a growing list of opponents who question its potential environmental health implications, reasons to cross Allegany and Garrett counties, and impact on local property owners, farmers and residents.
“I would like to point out that the bill, as written, could allow a much wider (right of way) if not additional ROW’s, than the 200’ (feet) NextEra Energy Transmission is reporting to be their planned project width,” Garrett County resident Ann Bristow wrote to Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz and state Senate President Bill Ferguson.
Frostburg resident William R. Neil, former director of conservation at the New Jersey Audubon Society, via written testimony to oppose the legislation said “a new route through (Maryland’s) wildlands should be a final resort after all options have been exhausted, not the first gambit of a legislature which has had so few even basic questions.”
Garrett County resident Steve Storck owns a 31-acre farm and woodlot to raise shiitake mushrooms.
“I do not want farms or wildlands taken for transmission lines if they are not needed and I don’t want (property owners or tax payers) to be taken advantage of,” he said via email to Garrett County Commissioners.
“SB399/HB1270 puts the cart before the horse, guaranteeing NextEra Energy access to route their transmission lines through these three wildlands without showing public need, without demonstrating this is the optimal route, and without any opportunity for public input,” Storck said. “And, they nor Senator McKay nor Delegate Hinebaugh have the authority to even ask, only the Governor has that privilege or authority.”
At a Senate hearing last month, McKay said NextEra proposes to build its MidAtlantic Resiliency Link from Pennsylvania to Virginia and cross through Allegany and Garrett counties.
“The transmission line is being developed because the regional grid operator, PJM, determined … it is needed to secure a reliable electricity in the region,” he said. “It will ensure that our hospitals, schools, homes will have electricity we need for the coming years.”
Thursday’s hearing will be live-streamed at mgaleg.maryland.gov/ beneath the Live Media section, under House and by clicking on Economic Matters Committee.