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. Air Pollution — Michigan and District 80 are facing extreme climate impacts, including more severe weather, hotter temperatures, and air pollution. We need to address this by significantly cutting our carbon footprint and working with communities across the world to reduce global climate output.
2. Data Centers — Michigan also faces concerns about our groundwater use and pollution, from both big corporations with lenient regulations that would pollute our water, and from data centers which, when built without guardrails, use an exorbitant amount of water. We need to protect our water at all costs. My district has many lakes and rivers that are used by the community that need to be maintained as the clean natural resources that they are.
3. Groundwater — Finally, Michigan ranks in the top few states for amount of landfill trash buried per resident. We also have a reduced recycling rate. My district has a closed landfill that leaches poisons into our groundwater and our communities. We need to expand recycling and composting facilities and access, and reduce landfilling so that we do not continue to bury trash in the ground that can poison us for years to come.
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
I support maintaining the law with a few revisions. We should add additional incentives to do this (rather than just the stick) and expand the use of community solar to meet this goal of clean energy.
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?
Government needs to not approve any projects that do any of the following, perhaps amongst others: They cannot consume any more water than a comparably-sized manufacturing facility, they cannot require more electricity than can be generated renewably or carbon-free onsite, and they cannot use any backup generators that are carbon-based. We also need to ensure that they do not pollute the air around them, and we should do everything possible to capture the excess heat for use elsewhere.
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 that communities have the resources and funding necessary to address the PFAS crisis. I am proud that part of my work on the Kent County Board of Public Works has included the approval of new PFAS mitigation technologies at our closed landfills and our incinerator. This foam fractionation technology will significantly improve our ability to remove PFAS from leachate.
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
Yes, though we should include resources necessary or models that w can agree are comprehensive enough to quickly make this assessment so that we do not continuously delay projects while agreeing on what "matters" for cumulative environmental and health impacts.
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 have greater oversight into the MPSC efforts and put better guardrails on situations in which cooperate utilities request rate increases.
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?
I haven't yet seen the engineering perspective that such a line would be safe for many years to come, and I am concerned about continuing to expand infrastructure for natural gas. I am however aware of the number of laborer jobs created through the pipeline industry, and would want to strike a balance while we wean off of the use of pipeline oil.
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?
Absolutely, and I have signed letters of support from MLCV in the past in that vein!
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
With very few exceptions, we can trace directly the pollution to lackadaisical regulations on businesses who caused the pollution. So long as we can trace it to polluter causation, they should be held accountable.