Power Line Project is a Bad IdeaA proposed high-energy power line extending 70 miles from the Baltimore area to Adamstown would threaten an estimated 4,000 acres of farmland, forests and wildlife habitats. It would also require permanent easements on dozens of farms and private properties to site hundreds of 140-foot-tall transmission towers. SCA joins the Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick County governments, the Maryland Farm Bureau, Preservation Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and a host of regional environmental groups is opposing the project. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in late November he had “grave concerns” about the project but has not yet opposed it. Learn more online, at StopMPRP.com, and on the SCA website. MPRP stands for Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project. Power lines are, of course, a necessary fixture of modern life. When they are justified, we support them and live with the eyesore. But the necessity of this one has been widely questioned. It will mainly provide power to the burgeoning data center industry in Virginia, and not Maryland homes and businesses. Plus, Marylanders will help foot the estimated $424 million cost. There are larger issues at play, too. Maryland lacks a coherent long-term energy strategy that takes the environment, the well-being of residents, and climate change into consideration—even as demand for energy is expected to rise sharply over the next decade.
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