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. Tar Sealants — S which seep into our drainage systems and contaminate our water is a top priority for the communities I seek to serve. These coal tar sealants increase the rates of cancer, harm aquatic life, and pollute our state.
2. Clean Drinking Water — Another top priority is replacing lead pipes across the state in order to ensure clean drinking water for everyone, legislation I helped champion in Lansing.
3. Clean Energy — Including community solar and other renewables. Doing so protects our environment, can help address the rising cost of energy, and diversifies our economy with high paying union jobs. That’s why I voted in favor of Michigan’s 100% renewable energy standard by 2040. In our efforts to transition our infrastructure and economy to greener systems, we need to expand our workforce training programs and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
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 has a responsibility to protect our public health, natural resources, and way of life while building a cleaner energy future. Therefore, I support maintaining the 2040 clean energy standard – legislation I voted for as a State Representative -- because it keeps Michigan on track to lead in environmental protection, clean energy job creation, and energy cost reduction for Michigan families.
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 believe that Michigan should take a careful approach to data center expansion, and any new center should have a clear community benefit for the local municipality. The state can help set initial guardrails for these centers, including responsible site choice, limits on water use, and protections to ensure energy costs aren’t passed on to surrounding communities. We need a transparent process where local communities are intimately involved in the planning, development, and use of data centers.
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?
We need to ensure EGLE has the funding, resources, and staff power to efficiently test drinking water and ground water for PFAS, and to respond quickly when levels exceed legal limits. We need clear, transparent public cleanup timetables such that communities aren’t left wondering when local waterways will be safe. EGLE’s work should be supplemented by polluter pay legislation to mitigate future contaminations, hold polluters accountable, and address clean up costs.
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
Michigan regulators should assess cumulative environmental and health impacts before approving new polluting facilities, especially in communities already facing disproportionate harm. Protecting public health means making sure permitting decisions do not deepen existing environmental injustices or cause new ones.
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?
Elected officials should play a greater role in holding utility companies accountable. We need to reduce their influence in elected officials’ decision making. Michigan residents deserve reliable energy at a fair cost, and the state legislature should not allow for utility companies to continuously seek major rate increases. I support stronger oversight and increased transparency surrounding rates so that we can protect Michiganders. I also support MMOP’s ballot initiative to get money out of politics, thereby reducing the influence DTE, Consumers, and other special interests have on our elected officials.
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 undue risk on drinking water for millions of people, and has operated far past its original commission timeline. Line 5 needs to be shut down, and we need to do so in a way that doesn’t need our workers behind.
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, I would support legislation that caps water bills for low-income Michiganders and adds shutoff protections. Access to clean water is a basic human right, and no Michigander should lose that access as a result of financial hardships.
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
Polluter pay and accountability is essential to clean up these contaminated sites and prevent them in the future, and I supported this legislation during my time in Lansing. The burden of cleanup should not fall on the communities impacted.