More than 200 northern Baltimore County residents crowded into the Hereford High School auditorium to protest the construction of a $424 million power line that will run through pristine farmland and valuable horse ranching areas to power both housing construction in Maryland and data center construction in Virginia.

The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project has drawn opposition at heated meetings in Frederick, Carroll and Baltimore counties since it was announced in July. Republican lawmakers, who learned about it only days before the public, hastily organized hearings with executives of PSEG, the New Jersey company that won the contract to build the PJM line.

Lawmakers criticized PJM, the regional transmission organization that coordinates the transportation of electricity in 13 states, including Maryland. PJM hired PSEG in what PSEG CEO Jason Kalwa described as a “homeowner-contractor relationship.” Many of the questions about the hiring process and scope of the project should have been directed to the homeowner, who was invited but not present.

“I want to say publicly that PJM’s refusal to engage the citizens of Maryland is wrong and I find it an insult to all of us,” said Del. Nino Mangione, who organized the meeting in Baltimore County. “Their behavior and lack of transparency are completely unacceptable.”

Del. Jesse Pippy, a Republican from Frederick, said much the same thing when he organized a similar meeting in Frederick last month.

PJM spokesman Dan Lockwood said he and his team have answered questions from the letters, but developing the route is a task for PSEG and the Maryland Public Service Commission. Maryland imports 40 percent of its electricity from other states and has retired or plans to retire 14 coal and natural gas plants. State law requires 50 percent of all electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, but the state has added few new projects to the grid, Lockwood said.

“PJM has no role in determining the route for this project, other than deciding on the need for electricity,” Lockwood said. “And the need for electricity infrastructure in Maryland couldn’t be clearer.”

Republican officials from all three affected counties have come out strongly against the project. Carroll County Commissioners issued a statement saying they would “use all of our influence with our neighboring counties, as well as state and federal politicians, to stop the project in its current form.” Mangione said Wednesday he is “totally opposed” to the project and has formed an organization, www.saveourcommunity.org, to lobby against it. Senator Chris West has distributed a research paper outlining how PSEG could complete the project using existing lines so the company would not have to seize anyone’s property.

Local environmental groups and land trusts have also objected to the property, which would run through hundreds of farms whose owners have granted conservation lands to protect from development. Two dozen land trusts and conservation groups signed a letter calling the project “inherently damaging” to the properties that land trusts are required to protect. PSEG leadership has not commented on how the conservation lands will affect its plans, saying it must wait until agencies complete a full environmental review.

The Democratic response to the Piedmont project was more muted. Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski issued a statement saying he opposed the company’s exercise of the right of expropriation, and Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater urged citizens to learn about the plans.

PJM quietly contracted with PSEG in December to build a transmission line that would connect the Doubs substation in Frederick to the Conastone substation in Harford County, near the Pennsylvania border. The company proposed several routes for the line, including ones that would run through the region’s drinking water systems at Prettyboy Reservoir and much of the protected farmland that has been in the family for more than a century.

As a contractor, Kalwa said he could not answer questions about how PJM came to the decision not to use existing infrastructure for the project. However, to his knowledge, the amount of electricity that would need to flow through those lines is not sufficient for the task.

Kalwa said PSEG received more than 5,200 comments from the public on the proposed routes. The company is reviewing those and taking them into account when revising the route. Kalwa said the company hopes to present a revised route to the public in October or November.

“We are still at the very beginning of this process,” Kalwa said several times at the meeting last night. “The route will not be final until we get approval, and we are still a long, long way from that.”

The Maryland Public Service Commission regulates utility projects in the state. PSEG has not yet applied for a permit, called a Certificate of Public Transportation and Necessity, for its project. The five commissioners vote on whether to grant or deny permits. The governor appoints members to five-year terms, with the state Senate serving in an advisory and consenting capacity. There is a vacancy in the Commission.

Last month’s rally in Frederick County was so unruly that organizers threatened to call in sheriff’s deputies to keep the peace. The rally in Hereford was calmer, but tempers still flared.

“This project destroys what is green and beautiful for us,” Caryn Joachim shouted into the microphone to applause. One of the planned lines would run through her 60-hectare farm.

Many fear their property will lose value if PSEG takes their land for its right of way. The company has stressed that it rarely uses the expropriation process to seize land and that it can usually negotiate an amicable settlement. Kalwa said he regrets the clause on the PSEG project website because the expropriation issue has become a distraction and is frightening local residents.

Part of the anger over the project stems from the public’s perception that it is funded by data centers in Northern Virginia, and that family farms there have become a “sacrifice zone” for the nation’s information needs.

According to Kalwa, it is impossible to say how much of the project’s impetus comes from the data center and how much from the needs of local residents.

Carroll County legislators and commissioners will hold another meeting Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Carroll County Agricultural Center. Doors open at 5 p.m.