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. Excessive, unnecessary or — Excessive, unnecessary or unwanted commercial pollution that unnecessarily impacts inner circle, urban communities close to Detroit's center. These pollutions are usually in the source of unwanted, or excessive odors that are produced as a result of the commercial production of cars, consumer products like soda pop, or petroleum refinery operations.
2. Clean Drinking Water — In our Detroit community,
3. Flooding — From heavy storms in areas of the district like Jefferson Chalmers and Corktown, SW Detroit.
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
In supporting the current language, perhaps the deadline should be sooner, say, 2032, to bring the state's most egregiois violators in line with the spirit of the law sooner.
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?
While every data center proposal should be considered on a project-by-project basis, the state should institute some basic guidelines for the construction and operation of these facilities. That should include basic regulations on waste runoffs, energy usage, and providing basic information of how the facilities can or will impact surrounding communities. The legislature can and must take the lead, where applicable, to provide as many protections as possible.
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 new representative can simply support any votes that limit, reverse and remediate any PFA contamination impacting those communities where PFAs have been found.
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
In obvious situations like the Marathon refinery in SW Detroit, the numerous violations that they have had to respond to are no-brainer issues that continue to pose issues to those communities.
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. The Legislature should absolutely approve any nominations to the Michigan Public Service Commission. And, additionally, the legislature should work closer with the utilities to determine how any future rate increases are implemented, if at all.
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?
One of my questions is and has always been, what is the alternative to a Line 5? You can't build it overhead. You can't build it invisibly through the air. And clearly, the UP needs access to natural gas and petroleum, unless they import it directly through Canada. So, Line 5 has a place, as long as the state continues to place regulations on its operations and takes measures to mitigate any unnecessary impacts to Lake Superior and Michigan.
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. In my previous life as a senior advisor to the Detroit City Council president, we supported ending shutoffs without putting place payment plans and other protections against shutoffs for those financially unable to pay their bills, especially in cases where the previous tenant or landlord was responsible for the water bill.
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
If not for the pursuit of whatever is causing such contamination, would there be any contamination in the first place? So yes, they should be responsible for cleaning it up. That's why they receive subsidies for Brownfields cleanup and remediation.