No member of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office will be authorized to work with the Piedmont Reliability Project group, Sheriff James T. DeWees said this week, as the controversial transmission line faces sustained pushback from landowners.

In a letter shared by his office on Tuesday, DeWees wrote that a request had been made “by the group” to have off-duty or reimbursable deputies go with employees to contact landowners so those employees could do land surveying.

“This will not be approved under any circumstance,” DeWees wrote.

The transmission line, which would run about 70 miles through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties, has faced a wall of opposition from landowners — even as the region faces a major energy problem.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Public Service Enterprise Group, the developer behind the transmission line, said it has not made any sort of outreach to request escorts on private property when contacting landowners.

“Beyond that, it is our policy to decline comment on any security-related matters,” a company spokesperson wrote.

Cpl. Jon Light, a spokesperson for the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, said PSEG called the department’s community resources section on April 11 and made the request. The request was discussed by command staff and denied, Light said.

The sheriff’s office said it would respond if there was a crime taking place, such as assault or trespassing, but will not “force” a landowner to comply with a civil access order.

Deputies from his office will similarly “not get in the middle of a civil dispute” between landowners and the MPRP group, DeWees wrote.

The transmission line, announced last June, has become a hot-button issue in the counties its planned route runs through and around the state.

Concern about the power line has united environmentalists on the left and property rights hard-liners on the right, and even drawn attention from Gov. Wes Moore, who said he had “grave concerns” about the project.

Residents in Maryland are upset over the power line’s proposed route through rural parts of the state — and over the fact that it’s needed, according to the regional grid operator, due to demand from out-of-state data centers.

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said “most” civil issues are referred to the court system for resolution.

“In this case, the Sheriff wanted to be specific about our stance,” Light, the spokesperson, wrote in an email.

In a complaint against dozens of landowners, filed April 15 in federal court, PSEG is seeking an injunction to authorize it to enter onto private property.

In the filing, the company makes it clear it’s seeking an order to enter onto the private properties for the “limited purpose” of survey work to “evaluate any potential environmental impacts” of the project. It is not a court filing seeking to use eminent domain, which is the government’s authority to seize private property for public use.

The company has tried to get “voluntary consent” to enter the properties, according to the filing, but has been refused.

At the beginning of the month, PSEG said seeking judicial orders in this way would be a “last resort.”

A spokesperson for the Baltimore County Police Department said it had not received any requests for enforcement, as did a spokesperson for the Baltimore County Sheriff’s Office.

A spokesperson for Chuck Jenkins, the Frederick County sheriff, said the office had issued a directive to staff “similar” to the one issued by DeWees in Carroll County.

“Sheriff Jenkins’ general direction is that the FCSO will not intervene in civil disputes between The Piedmont Group and private property owners,” Katie Robine, a department spokesperson, wrote in an email.