Planet Detroit Candidate Survey
What are the three most pressing environmental issues facing the communities you seek to serve? Please rank them in order of priority and briefly explain why you chose each.
1. Clean Drinking Water — Protecting Michigan's Water Resources – The Great Lakes are one of our state's greatest assets. Protecting drinking water, reducing PFAS contamination, improving watershed management, and supporting responsible agricultural conservation practices are essential for public health, tourism, agriculture, and future generations.
2. Clean Energy — Development – Michigan has tremendous potential in wind, hydroelectric, and emerging energy technologies. Expanding domestic energy production reduces dependence on foreign energy sources, creates jobs, lowers long-term costs, and helps ensure a reliable energy future.
3. Infrastructure — Supporting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Resilience – Farmers are on the front lines of changing weather patterns, invasive species, and market disruptions. Investing in soil health, conservation programs, rural infrastructure, and agricultural innovation helps protect both our environment and Michigan's agricultural economy.
Michigan law requires utilities to reach 100% clean energy by 2040. If elected, would you support maintaining this law, or would you support revising or repealing it? Please explain your position.
Maintain the current law and timeline
Michigan's transition to cleaner energy should continue on a predictable timeline that provides certainty for businesses, utilities, workers, and consumers. I support an "all of the above" energy strategy that expands renewable energy while maintaining grid reliability, affordability, and domestic energy security.
More than two dozen Michigan communities are considering or have approved large-scale data center developments. These facilities can consume as much electricity as a small city and place significant demands on local water and energy infrastructure. What role should state government play in overseeing data center development, and what guardrails should the state legislature enact to protect communities where data centers are proposed?
I am deeply concerned about the rapid expansion of large-scale data centers in Michigan, particularly in rural communities where residents are being asked to absorb major energy, water, land-use, and infrastructure impacts with very little long-term job creation in return. These projects should not receive special federal support or incentives unless they can clearly prove they will not raise local utility costs, strain water resources, undermine farmland, or shift infrastructure costs onto taxpayers.
State government should require full transparency before approval, including independent studies on water use, energy demand, grid reliability, local rate impacts, environmental consequences, and long-term community costs. Communities should have meaningful local input, and developers should be required to pay for infrastructure upgrades, meet strong energy and water-use standards, and provide enforceable community benefit agreements. Growth cannot come at the expense of residents, farmland, or local control.
PFAS contamination has been detected in drinking water, groundwater, and surface water across Michigan. Cleanup efforts are underway, but many affected communities are still waiting for action. What is the single most important step the officeholder in this position should take on PFAS in the next term?
The most important step is passing stronger federal PFAS legislation that protects consumers, holds polluters accountable, and gives communities the resources they need to clean up contaminated water. Michigan families should not have to wonder whether their drinking water, groundwater, farmland, or local waterways are safe.
I support stronger national standards for PFAS testing, disclosure, labeling, and cleanup, along with federal funding to help affected communities remediate contamination quickly. We also need to ensure the financial burden does not fall on local taxpayers or families, but on the companies responsible for producing and releasing these chemicals. Clean water is a basic public health issue, and protecting consumers must be the priority.
Michigan residents in some communities face disproportionate exposure to air pollution, contaminated water, and industrial waste. Do you support requiring Michigan regulators to assess cumulative environmental and health impacts on overburdened communities before approving new permits for polluting facilities?
Yes
Communities deserve to understand the cumulative health and environmental impacts of proposed developments before permits are approved. Decisions should be based on sound science, transparent data, and a balanced assessment of economic benefits, environmental risks, and public health outcomes.
Utility rate cases directly affect what Michigan residents pay for electricity and gas. DTE and Consumers Energy have requested frequent significant rate increases in recent years. Should elected officials play a greater role in holding utility companies accountable for rate hikes and rising energy costs?
Yes. Utility companies provide essential services, and residents deserve transparency and accountability when rates increase. Elected officials should ensure that proposed rate hikes are justified, that investments improve reliability and infrastructure, and that consumers are protected from unnecessary costs while maintaining a stable and resilient energy grid.
Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline runs through the Straits of Mackinac and carries crude oil and natural gas liquids between Wisconsin and Ontario. A proposed tunnel beneath the lakebed to house a replacement pipeline has faced legal and regulatory challenges for years. What is your position on the future of Line 5?
Line 5 poses an unacceptable risk to the Great Lakes, which are central to Michigan’s economy, drinking water, tourism, fishing, and way of life. I support transitioning away from Line 5 in a responsible way that protects workers and communities while ensuring energy reliability. Any future decision must put Great Lakes protection, Tribal rights, public safety, and long-term environmental security first.
Drinking water is becoming increasingly unaffordable for Michiganders in both rural and urban areas, leading to water shutoffs. Would you support legislation that caps water bills for low-income Michiganders and adds shutoff protections?
Yes. Clean drinking water is a basic necessity, and families should not lose access because they cannot afford rising utility costs. I support reasonable affordability protections, including assistance for low-income households and shutoff protections, while also investing in infrastructure so communities can provide safe, reliable water without placing the entire burden on residents.
Michigan is home to more than 18,000 contaminated sites. Do you support or oppose legislation to hold polluters accountable for cleaning up these sites?
Support
Polluters should be responsible for cleaning up the contamination they create, not Michigan families or local taxpayers. I support strong enforcement, cleanup funding, and accountability measures that protect public health, restore contaminated land and water, and ensure communities are not left carrying the cost of corporate pollution.