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 Water — Environmental Justice and Public Health in Overburdened Communities
For far too long, low-income communities and communities of color have borne the brunt of pollution from industry, transportation corridors, and aging infrastructure. Residents deserve clean air, clean water, and safe neighborhoods regardless of their ZIP code.
2. Climate Change — Climate Resilience and Infrastructure Modernization
Michigan is already experiencing the effects of climate change through extreme weather events, flooding, heat waves, and infrastructure failures. Investing in resilient infrastructure is essential to protecting families, businesses, and local governments from increasingly costly climate-related disasters. Preparing our communities now will save lives and taxpayer dollars in the future.
3. Clean Drinking Water — Access to Clean Water and Protection of the Great Lakes
Michigan’s identity and economy are deeply connected to our water resources. Protecting the Great Lakes, addressing lead service line replacement, preventing contamination from PFAS and other harmful chemicals, and ensuring safe drinking water must remain a top priority.
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 need 100% 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?
As a state legislator, I believe Michigan has an opportunity to attract data center investment and the jobs that come with it, but that growth must be balanced with strong protections for residents, local governments, and our natural resources.
First, the state should require transparency and comprehensive impact assessments before large-scale data centers are approved. Communities deserve clear information about projected energy use, water consumption, environmental impacts, tax incentives, and long-term economic benefits before decisions are made.
Second, data centers should pay their fair share of infrastructure costs. Local residents should not face higher utility bills or strained water systems because of a private development. Developers should be required to contribute to necessary upgrades to the electric grid, water infrastructure, and transportation networks associated with their projects.
Third, Michigan should establish strong environmental standards that encourage energy efficiency, water conservation, and the use of renewable energy. Large facilities should be incentivized—or required where appropriate—to minimize water withdrawals, utilize recycled water when feasible, and invest in clean energy generation and storage to reduce pressure on the grid.
Finally, local communities must retain a meaningful voice in the approval process. State policy should support robust public engagement and ensure local governments have the authority and resources necessary to evaluate proposals and negotiate community benefit agreements that reflect local priorities.
Michigan can welcome innovation and economic development while protecting ratepayers, safeguarding natural resources, and ensuring that the benefits of data center development are shared by the communities that host 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?
As a legislator, I would work to strengthen Michigan’s ability to hold responsible parties accountable, increase resources for testing and remediation, and ensure that communities have access to timely information about contamination risks. Particular attention must be given to schools, childcare centers, and communities that have historically faced environmental burdens and may lack the resources to address contamination on their own.
Every Michigander deserves access to safe drinking water. The next term should focus on moving from detection to remediation, with clear timelines, transparent reporting, and the resources necessary to deliver measurable results for affected communities.
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
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?
Michigan families are facing rising costs for housing, food, healthcare, and energy. When utilities seek significant rate increases, there must be rigorous scrutiny to ensure that every requested dollar is necessary, justified, and delivers tangible benefits to customers. Legislators should strengthen oversight, increase transparency in the rate-setting process, and ensure that consumers, local governments, and advocacy organizations have meaningful opportunities to participate.
I support policies that require utilities to demonstrate measurable improvements in reliability, grid modernization, customer service, and clean energy outcomes before rate increases are approved. Utility companies should not be rewarded for poor performance, and the costs of mismanagement should not be passed on to ratepayers.
I also believe we must expand affordability programs, strengthen protections against shutoffs, and explore reforms that make utility regulation more responsive to the needs of working families, seniors, and low-income residents.
Reliable energy service is essential, but so is affordability. Michigan’s energy system should work for the people who pay the bills, not just for utility shareholders.
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 don’t support Line 5 or any other oil pipelines I think we need to pay for community damage, we need to end the pipeline and make laws to prevent new ones.
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
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 need to be held accountable they are destroying our environment and making people sick.