Michigan is the Great Lakes state surrounded by one-fifth of the world’s freshwater. It’s why most political candidates — regardless of party affiliation — run with an environmental platform.
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) and former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers are vying to fill Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat. Here's how the candidates stand on three environmental issues.
Line 5
Line 5 transports roughly 23 million gallons of light crude oil every day, crossing through the Straits of Mackinac. A proposed tunnel would relocate a 4-mile section of the pipeline, moving it from the bottom of the Straits to a tunnel under the lakebed.
Slotkin currently represents the area that stretches from Lansing to Detroit’s northern suburbs in the U.S. House of Representatives. She said she supports shutting down the 70-year-old pipeline.
She said the pipeline poses an unacceptable risk to the Great Lakes but did not share a clear position on the proposed tunnel during an interview with WCMU. Instead, she said the federal government should expand its oversight on any development in the Straits.
“You should be able to prove without a shadow of a doubt that it’s safe, and it’s not going to run the risk of some major environmental damage," Slotkin said. "So that’s where I put my energy and that’s how I feel about anything that’s there or could be there.”
Republican Mike Rogers represented Livingston, Ingham and Oakland Counties in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2015. Rogers said Line 5 is essential to the state’s economic and energy needs, but acknowledged the exposed pipeline poses an “environmental hazard.”
He said he believes encasing the pipeline in a tunnel is the best alternative.
“All the environmental demands on this should be met by the fact that we’re going to take that pipe that’s laying on the bottom of the lake — take it out — so we don’t have any risk of contamination of freshwater,” Rogers said.
Gotion plant
Further downstate near Big Rapids, community members in a rural township have been protesting the construction of a proposed electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant.
The plant’s owner, Gotion, is based in China and has public ties to the country’s Communist Party. But developers and state officials say the plant will help achieve Michigan’s green energy goals and bring roughly 2,300 jobs to the region.
The plant has raised national security concerns. Slotkin was an intelligence analyst with the CIA, and Rogers was a special agent with the FBI.
Rogers opposes the plant and said it only benefits China.
He told supporters at an August rally, if elected, he’ll try to block Chinese scientists from obtaining visas to work at the plant.
“Oh, we’re going to do everything in our power," Rogers said. "They’re going to courts. We have other ways to engage to stop this plant. There are things we can do at the federal level that make it very difficult for them to actually build the plant.”
Slotkin did not firmly back the project or call for its shutdown, but did say projects like the Gotion plant should go through a “thorough national security vetting process.”
She said she also opposes the use of Chinese EVs in the U.S., which is in line with a recent Biden administration proposal.
“I don’t like all that detailed information about Americans and American infrastructure, our facilities, our electrical grid, our military bases — being filmed, being mapped and then sent back to China and other places to be used for nefarious purposes," Slotkin said.
Rogers has accused Slotkin of signing a "secret agreement" related to the plant and said he would "never" sign a non-disclosure agreement.
"You're a public official. By the very definition, you're supposed to be transparent," he said. "And what that does is keep people in the dark."
Slotkin said she never signed an NDA related to the Gotion plant and told WCMU that she learned of the project along with the public. Slotkin has signed an NDA related to two separate development projects in her congressional district.
"We're trying to bring development here - American companies building American products and bring our supply chain back home," she said. "... The most important thing is to make sure Michigan an investment opportunity for these big manufacturing sites. It doesn't require an NDA, but it just requires we have a real push to bring these companies here."
Climate change
Climate change is listed as a concern among young voters, according to various polls, and came up in a recent debate hosted by WXYZ-TV Detroit.
In 2022, Slotkin voted in support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which set aside billions of dollars toward infrastructure projects to combat climate impacts. Goldman Sachs estimates the IRA fiscal cost will be around $1.2 trillion through 2031.
“I want us to invest in energy traditional sources (like) natural gas, wind, solar, nuclear," Slotkin said at the debate. "All of those things help us maintain our independence but increase the amount of energy we know we’re going to need. We do that and at the same time, make our climate cleaner.”
Rogers has criticized Slotkin for her vote for the IRA for raising government spending and inflation. (The inflation rate has actually dropped since the passage of the law, but economists say this was unrelated to the IRA.) However, Rogers also acknowledged climate change as a problem that needs solving.
“You gotta do modular nuclear reactors to get our electric grid up to snuff," he said. "Let the market decide, and take us. Hybrids, we should build here in the state of Michigan, and we should be proud of them.”
Polling shows the race between Slotkin and Rogers is a toss-up, and the environment is on the minds of Michigan voters. This seat, left open by outgoing Democrat Debbie Stabenow, could determine which party holds the Senate majority.
Early in-person voting gets underway across the state on Oct. 26.
