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. Energy Costs — The cost of energy and who is accountable for it. DTE and Consumers raise rates year after year. Michigan pays some of the highest energy costs in the Midwest and gets some of the worst reliability in the country. It is first because it is what people feel every single month.
2. Lead Pipes — Water. We are surrounded by so much of the world's fresh water, and families here still worry about the tap and the bill. Lead service lines, PFAS in our groundwater, and water bills people cannot afford are the ones I hear about most. It is second because clean, affordable water is the most basic thing a community needs. Flint already showed us what happens when we let it slide.
3. Data Centers — S. More than two dozen Michigan communities are looking at large projects, and people here do not like what they see. One facility can use as much electricity and water as a small city. The jobs matter, and any project has to work for workers, but it cannot come at the expense of our water, our rates, and the clean energy progress we have made.
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
We should hold the line against any effort to weaken the Clean Energy and Jobs Act, water down what counts as clean energy, or delay it. Michigan families are owed the cleaner air, lower costs, and good jobs it was written to deliver.
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 led Macomb Defenders Rising members in submitting testimony at the Michigan Public Service Commission against DTE's proposed 1.4-gigawatt data center contract, and I spoke at a Washington Township zoning hearing on a large data center proposal. Michigan should put a binding framework in place instead of approving these one community at a time. The guardrails should include full transparency, strict environmental standards, and infrastructure and energy costs covered by the companies building them, not families. The people living closest need protection with setbacks from homes, limits on the constant noise and diesel generators that hurt local air quality, and siting rules that guard their health and property values. Any project should work for workers, protect our water, and strengthen communities instead of exploiting them.
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 to keep more PFAS out of our water, and to make the companies that put it there pay to clean up what is already here. PFAS do not break down. Once it is in the groundwater, it is hard and expensive to remove. We need testing and monitoring, including bio-monitoring and groundwater testing, so families near these sites know what is in their water. The people responsible should pay for the cleanup and not Michigan taxpayers.
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
When you live near a refinery, a highway, and an incinerator all at once, your health risk comes from all of them combined, but our permitting system still reviews each one in isolation. EGLE should have the authority to weigh that combined burden before approving one more polluting facility.
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?
This is one of the main reasons I am running. Just recently, I was leading an MDR Zoom meeting when my power went out. I had to call a neighbor, drive over, and spend 30 minutes getting back online. For families with medical equipment or kids at home, that is not a minor inconvenience, and it keeps happening while DTE and Consumers come back for rate hike after rate hike. I will not take a penny of utility money. You cannot hold these companies accountable if they helped fund your campaign. I am running on three things: a freeze on rate hikes while families are stretched thin, guaranteed reimbursement when the power is out for more than 24 hours, and tying utility profits to whether they actually deliver. Also, monopoly utilities should not be allowed to spend on politics or hide it through dark money in any campaign.
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 runs through the Straits of Mackinac, one of the most sensitive places in the Great Lakes. Any decision about its future has to clear a high bar. Nothing should move forward without completing the full federal and state environmental review, genuine consultation with the affected tribes consistent with their sovereignty and treaty rights, and rigorous safety standards for the construction and the line itself. I am not going to hand Enbridge a blank check, and I do not take a dime of fossil fuel money. Protecting the Great Lakes is not negotiable for me.
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?
For me, access to water is a human right. No one should lose access to clean drinking water because they cannot afford their bill, and that should not happen in Michigan, a state surrounded by so much of the world's fresh water. I support capping bills for low-income families and adding shutoff protections, like the SB 549-554 package. When the water gets shut off, you cannot cook, clean, or keep your kids healthy. It affects everything.
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
More than 18,000 contaminated sites is not a number we should accept as normal, and it keeps growing. Old factories, refineries, gas stations, and landfills have been left to leach into our soil and groundwater for decades. Michigan weakened its Polluter Pay law in the 1990s, and companies have been walking away from their messes ever since while taxpayers cover the cost. I support strengthening Polluter Pay with strict liability and full disclosure, and funding EGLE's Part 201 program with the staff to do discovery, remediation, and enforcement. The companies that made these messes should pay to clean them up, not the families living next to them.