PSEG Renewable Transmission LLC v. Arentz Family, LP (Piedmont Line Pre-Condemnation Survey Entry)
The Fourth Circuit, in a published opinion, affirmed a preliminary injunction letting PSEG Renewable Transmission LLC enter the properties of 117 landowners along the proposed 67-mile Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project transmission line to conduct court-ordered environmental and engineering surveys, over the owners' objections. The panel held that PSEG qualifies as a 'body politic or corporate having the power of eminent domain' under Md. Code Ann., Real Property § 12-111 even though the Maryland Public Service Commission has not yet issued the certificate of public convenience and necessity the project ultimately needs, rejecting the landowners' argument that condemnation authority must already exist before pre-certification survey entry can be ordered.
Why it matters
Confirms that utilities and infrastructure developers relying on state 'right of entry to survey' statutes can force pre-condemnation access to private land based on preliminary regulatory designation (here, PJM's selection and FERC's acceptance of the project) rather than a completed certification process — a sequencing question that numerous states' similarly worded statutes have rarely tested at the appellate level. For commercial and agricultural landowners along any proposed transmission, pipeline, or similar corridor, the ruling narrows the window to resist survey access to disputes over the scope of a bona fide notice or the type of study proposed, rather than the developer's eminent domain status itself.
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