Joanne Frederick Bought Back the Freeland Farm Where Her Grandfather Planted Walnut Trees. Now a Power Line Fight Over It Is at the Supreme Court.

What does it take to turn a Baltimore County farm fight into a Supreme Court filing? For Joanne Frederick, it took a 100-acre property in Freeland, Md., a proposed 67-mile power line and a federal court order that lets a utility’s crews walk her land. Landowners along the route asked the nation’s highest court on Nov. 4, 2026, to review that order, Fox Baltimore reported.

The Freeland Farm and the Walnut Trees Frederick Bought Back

Frederick owns a 100-acre property in Freeland that her family has held for generations, according to Fox Baltimore. She bought it back in 2020. It includes walnut trees her grandfather planted, and she makes nocino, a liqueur, from the green walnuts. She hopes to build revenue from the land.

She also points to water. A spring on the property feeds Bee Tree Run, the Gunpowder River and eventually the Chesapeake Bay, she told the station, and the proposed tower location sits near that spring and within a forest buffer. Those are Frederick’s descriptions of where the line would go. The route is still proposed, and no final approval has been issued.

Survey crews have already been on the land, she said, six or seven times. She described the visits as upsetting.

A 67-Mile, 500-Kilovolt Line Through Three Counties

The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project is a proposed 500-kilovolt line that PJM Interconnection describes in its fact sheet as about 67 miles long, running from a substation in Frederick County to a point near a substation in Baltimore County. PJM picked PSEG Renewable Transmission LLC to build it in December 2023 through a competitive solicitation. PJM says new lines are needed to prevent overloads as demand rises, driven mainly by data centers, and as generators retire, including Brandon Shores and Wagner in Anne Arundel County.

PSEG’s own route announcement, issued in October 2024, described a proposed route of roughly 70 miles with a 150-foot-wide right-of-way through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties. That release gave June 2027 as the proposed operation date. The state review has since been scheduled well past that.

Why Survey Access Went to Federal Court

Before the Maryland Public Service Commission can decide whether to approve the line, PSEG needs field surveys of the land. Many owners refused to let crews in. PSEG sued dozens of them, led by Arentz Family, LP, and a federal judge granted the company survey access in June 2025, Fox Baltimore reported.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld that injunction on Aug. 6, 2026 in PSEG Renewable Transmission LLC v. Arentz Family, LP, No. 25-1730. The central question was whether PSEG could use a Maryland law, Real Property Article Section 12-111(a), that lets a party with eminent domain power survey private land. That power normally follows state approval, known as a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. Judge Berner, writing for the majority with Judge Wilkinson, concluded that PSEG likely held the power for access purposes before the certificate issued, because requiring the certificate first would make the scheme unworkable, since surveys are needed to obtain it. The opinion also relied on a 2018 Maryland state court decision allowing similar access.

Judge Richardson agreed with the result but not the reasoning. He concluded PSEG likely holds eminent domain power under a different provision of the Public Utilities Article, with its use conditioned on the certificate.

The Nov. 4 Petition and What the Landowners Argue

The landowners filed their petition for a writ of certiorari on Nov. 4, 2026. The Supreme Court’s docket, No. 26-600, lists the case as Arentz Family, LP, et al. v. PSEG Renewable Transmission LLC, with the petition docketed Nov. 6.

Aaron Newell, the attorney representing the landowners, argues that a federal court should not have granted access on a prediction that PSEG would hold eminent domain power under Maryland law. He told Fox Baltimore that PSEG could have turned to a state agency or the Maryland legislature instead. He also pointed to side effects of the injunction: some owners cannot hunt on their own land without PSEG’s permission, and one sheep and goat farm worries that surveyors could spread disease.

PSEG declined to comment on the petition, citing potential litigation. The company says field surveys are largely complete, with a small number still outstanding.

What Happens Next at the Supreme Court and the PSC

The petition asks the justices only whether to take the case. The docket shows a response from PSEG due Dec. 7, 2026, and Fox Baltimore reported that the landowners expect an answer on whether the Court will take up the case in the coming months. The petition concerns survey access, not the project’s final approval.

The state process runs separately. A revised Public Service Commission schedule for the project, Case No. 9773, sets public comment hearings in each of the three counties, held on Saturdays starting March 6, 2027. Evidentiary hearings run May 11 through May 21, 2027. Initial briefs are due June 14, 2027, and reply briefs June 28. The Commission set a target final order date of 60 days after the evidentiary hearings end, which would fall around July 2027. The order calls that a target, not a binding deadline.

For Frederick, both tracks remain open. The farm her family held for generations, and the walnut trees her grandfather planted, are still on the land she bought back in 2020, and the line is still a proposal. Whether surveyors keep coming in the meantime depends on whether the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Mr Ignavy – CC BY-SA 2.0/Wikimedia Commons