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 Quality — Clean Air – Every Michigander has a right to clean air. Air pollution remains a serious concern across our state, contributing to asthma and other respiratory illnesses, especially in children and seniors. Air quality has the most immediate and widespread impact on public health and is often the first line of environmental exposure.
2. Clean Water — Michigan’s identity and economy are deeply tied to the Great Lakes and our water. Ongoing threats such as PFAS contamination, aging water infrastructure, and harmful algal blooms make water protection a constant and urgent priority. Clean water is essential not only for public health, but also for agriculture, tourism, and local economies.
3. Forests — S, farmland, and mineral resources, but these assets are not infinite. Responsible stewardship means balancing development with conservation to ensure long-term access and sustainability for future generations.
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
Moving Michigan's economy in the direction of clean energy is critical for sustainability and investment in our future economy. This transition is urgent and pressing. At the same time, producers and industry need predictability in order to make the investments needed to move us toward the clean energy future we all want, so, I would maintain and protect the current law and timeline.
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?
Data centers should only be approved when: the local community has had meaningful input, assurances have been made that the data center will not increase the cost of energy for local rate payers, local water resources will be protected, the data center will not stress existing infrastructure in ways that negatively affect affordability or reliability, enforceable community benefits agreements are in place to ensure the profits and benefits of these projects are shared with local communities, and agreements are in place ensuring that jobs created will be union, and paid above local average wages. The state should establish a floor for these types of projects and to ensure that all stakeholders are represented, but local communities should have the freedom to add supplemental requirements that are responsive to the needs and wants of the local community. The state should also ensure that these investments are leveraged to ensure that progress is made toward the state's renewable energy goals.
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 an officeholder for the 57th State House District could take is ensuring sustained and targeted funding to accelerate PFAS detection, monitoring, and cleanup across drinking water systems, groundwater, and high-risk sites statewide. This should include expanding testing and mapping efforts while prioritizing rapid remediation in affected communities to protect public health and prevent further exposure.
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 on overburdened communities before approving new permits for polluting facilities. This ensures that the health and safety of our communities are protected in the permitting process.
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. Elected officials must push back HARD on rate increases. DTE and Consumers Energy are hugely profitable and that profit comes at the expense of Michigan rate payers. DTE and Consumers Energy are regulated and therefore, it is politicians and the Michigan Public Service Commission that owe it to Michigan voters to scrutinize rate increase requests and ensure that rate payers are protected and respected.
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, in its current state, is an unacceptable risk to the great lakes. Action must be taken to ensure that our Great Lakes are protected from catastrophic pollution. The action to protect our Great Lakes must be science-based and consider the real risk to the environment, not merely corporate profits. Enbridge, the owner of the pipeline, also owned the Line 6b which spilled oil into the Kalamazoo River. Enbridge has demonstrated that they will place profits over safety. Enbridge cannot be allowed to dictate the best resolution for the safety of Line 5. Rather, Michigan regulators and scientists should define the direction.
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?
I support Michigan's bipartisan water affordability legislation. Clean drinking water is a necessity for life and it should be protected and preserved. The water affordability bill package will allow struggling households to pay bills they can afford while ensuring that water providers can regain full payments.
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 must be held accountable for resolving the pollution they cause. It is unjust to impose the cost of cleanup on citizens while the profits are privatized.