Opponents of a proposed 67-mile power line that would cut through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick Counties plan to turn up the heat on Gov Wes Moore.

They say he’s gone AWOL on the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project.

At a recent public hearing at Hereford High School, Diane Shipley Sprinkle wanted to know if she should contact the governor every day about the MPRP. The transmission line would cut through her family farm in Westminster.

“It’s just taken so much out of everybody’s life and I know it’s personal for me but there’s so many people that are going through heartache with this and you just wish that man would listen to us,” Shipley Sprinkle said.

State Sen. Chris West, a Republican, encouraged MPRP opponents to put on the pressure, like showing up when Governor Moore makes public appearances.

“He could end this whole controversy with a public statement that he is in favor of a denial of this application,” West said.

Maryland’s Public Service Commission will have the final say on the MPRP. West said the governor should call his appointees on the commission and tell them to kill the project.

Carter Elliott, the governor’s senior press secretary, said that would be inappropriate because the commission is an independent agency.

The governor has said he has grave concerns about the project.

In April, Moore said he did not like the prospect that land could be seized to make way for the power line.

“I do not believe that people somehow do not have any type of ownership on property that they’ve owned in some cases for generations,” Moore said. “I do not believe that that’s the way it should work and I do believe in process.”

The governor’s office said he has met with PJM Interconnection, the organization that controls the power grid that serves Maryland, to share his concerns.

Sen. West believes Moore’s actions, such as meeting with PJM and not the MPRP’s opponents, is a tell.

“He’s sending a message subtly that he’s in favor of it,” West said. “And the people are very upset. He’s going to get blamed if this line goes through for not having spoken up.”

Del. Nino Mangione, a Republican, said Moore, a Democrat, should stop making out-of-state political trips, and instead come to where the MPRP would be built.

“So you can actually come, listen to our stories and fight with the people that I represent,” Mangione said.

PSEG, the company that is planning to build the transmission line, is suing property owners so it can get on their land to conduct survey work.

Melvin Baile Junior, a Carroll County farmer, said he’s worried he’ll be held accountable if a surveyor runs into one of his farm’s residents.

Baile said, “It’s going across a corner of my pasture that has a bull in there that is very aware. He’s very aware of people that are not familiar to him and he protects his girls.”

Baile is one of about 200 landowners who are named in a suit filed last week by PSEG. In an earlier suit, the company won the right to survey the properties of more than 100 landowners.

Harris Eisenstein, a partner in the law firm Rosenberg Martin Greenberg, advised those landowners that while that first case is being appealed, the surveyors have the right to come on their property with 24 hours notice.

He advised those landowners to cooperate and document.

“Take photographs,” Eisenstein said. “Take video evidence. Take meticulous notes. If you don’t obey a court order there will be consequences.”

PSEG says it has not yet started surveying but expects to begin very soon.

Opponents of the MPRP liken it to a 70 mile extension cord that will ship power from Pennsylvania to Virginia to fuel data centers. They say Marylanders will help pay for it and receive no benefit.

PSEG disputes that.

In a statement it said the MPRP will increase the amount of electricity available to the state through the regional grid.

“Maryland uses about 40% more electricity than it generates, and the extra supply that Marylanders need is imported to the state via the regional grid,” PSEG wrote. “As a result, Maryland relies on a high-voltage transmission system to deliver electricity to homes and businesses.”

It’ll be up to the Public Service Commission to decide the MPRP’s fate.