BALTIMORE — Landowners continue to fight back against a multi-billion dollar company from out of state, in a clash over proposed powerlines now playing out in federal court.
Dozens have filed motions to dismiss the Public Service Enterprise Group' lawsuit against 114 landowners in order to gain access to their property after permission was denied.
It's part of an ongoing, controversial project to build nearly 70 miles of powerlines through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties.
Joanne Frederick, President of Stop MPRP and an affected landowner herself, says the process has been intimidating, all-encompassing and at times confusing.
Such as, figuring out when legally she had to respond to the court filing, or risk default judgment in the company's favor.
“The first page says 21 days. And then you have to go through this entire package, and the very last document is document 79, which is the expedited scheduling order, which says you have seven days to respond," she said. "Either sloppy or sneaky to put the document together in this way."
The fight is a very personal one for the many who have taken on PSEG, a New Jersey company worth more than $39 billion.
For Frederick, it's property she that was once her great grandparent's that she bought back in 2020, and is working to restore it.
"Trees that my grandfather and great grandfather planted on this property will be destroyed because of this powerline," she said. "This land means something to us. Our legacy means something to us."
The latest motions argue the company cannot invoke eminent domain and federal court is the wrong jurisdiction.
Landowners file motion to dismiss in court clash over proposed powerlines
"This is really a state matter," executive director of the youth camp River Valley Ranch, Jon Bisset said.
"It's something that is currently before the Public Service Commission, and there's a whole process in place for dealing with this," he said. "So to give access to this before they've demonstrated that this is even the right route or whether the project should even happen at all seems very premature."
Representatives for PSEG have declined to comment citing the pending litigation and plan to respond through court filings.
Bissett says the proposed project would take over 17 acres on the camp's Carroll County property, but from the get-go they've had difficulty in getting information on the project's impact on their property, and the future of the camp.
"For many of [the children], this is the first time they will have been outside, the first time they've ridden a horse, the first time they've hiked through the woods or even seen the stars at night," Bisset explained.
"To have a project like this come through and really destroy a lot of the experience that is central to what we're trying to give these kids is just completely incompatible with the purpose and the mission of what we're trying to do."
Stop MPRP has also raised about $35,000 of a $40,000 goal to fund their legal defense.
"We're in this together and it is wrong on so many levels that that's what keeps me in the fight. it's the sense of justice, is the sense of what's right," Frederick said.
