A second location has been added for a public forum on BGE’s Brandon Shores Retirement Mitigation transmission line project, which will be held on Wednesday, April 23 at 6:30 p.m.
The second location was added to accommodate the number of people who may want to learn about the project and offer their comments. The hearing will be held in two Baltimore County locations simultaneously: one in White Marsh, where the judge will be presiding, and the other in Nottingham.
The public will be able to attend and speak at either location. Registration is not required, but if a person wants to speak, they need to sign up when they arrive. The two locations are:
White Marsh Fire Hall
10331 Philadelphia Road
White Marsh, MD 21162 (Public Utility Law Judge Jennifer J. Grace will preside at this location)
and
Columbus Gardens
4301 Klosterman Avenue
Nottingham, MD 21236
The two locations will be linked virtually with audio and video to allow people at both locations to see, hear, and provide spoken public comment at both places. Staff will be on hand to assist with logistics at both locations.
The focus of this hearing, the third to be held in this case, is BGE’s application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity related to extending the retirement dates of the Brandon Shores coal-fired power plant in Anne Arundel County from mid-2025 to at least 2028. That extension, according to BGE, requires modifying and constructing overhead transmission lines that cross Harford, Baltimore, and Anne Arundel counties. The first two hearings were held earlier in April in Harford and Anne Arundel counties.
Sonal Patel of “Power” magazine reported that PJM, the grid operator, determined that deactivating the Brandon Shores power plant “before planned transmission upgrades were completed in 2028, would result in voltage instability and thermal violations across multiple transmission owner areas in and around Baltimore.” There are already upgrades underway to resolve the Brandon Shores violations but they would not be complete by mid-2025.
In August 2024, Maryland’s congressional delegation wrote a joint letter expressing opposition to keeping Brandon Shores open until 2028. Objections included stunting Maryland’s climate goals, increasing costs to Maryland ratepayers, and environmental and health consequences facing residents who live near the plant. The letter was signed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, then-Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Jamie Raskin, then-Rep. David J. Trone, and then-Rep. John P. Sarbanes.
Those interested in observing the hearing can do so by watching on the Public Utility Law Judge’s YouTube channel, available by clicking this link.
Until they can prove that they can fulfill the needed amount of energy the coal plants should stay in operation. If you shut them down and can’t keep up we could have an incident like the one in Texas. When the windmills froze and people froze to death.