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Rebekah Warren: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to the November edition of First Friday Focus on the Environment. It's been a big week with lots of news about the midterm elections. What does the outcome mean for the protection of our air, land, water and Great Lakes? We thought it would be a good idea to dive into this subject. My partner on First Friday is Lisa Wozniak, who serves as president and CEO of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. We have the perfect person for our conversation today, don't we, Lisa?
Lisa Wozniak: And we do indeed! Congresswoman Debbie Dingell is with us today, who I know must be completely exhausted after being on the campaign trail but has agreed to join us. So, thank you, Congresswoman, for being here with us.
Rep. Debbie Dingell: Well, it's great to talk to both of you. I've seen both of you, and I had a lot of things in the last month or two, and you're always working on doing something good for other people.
Lisa Wozniak: Well, thank you! And there is so much to do and so much to dig into. But I'd love to start with your top takeaways from the results of Tuesday's elections. What do the results in Washington and in Lansing mean for environmental protection over the next two years?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: So, first of all, I want to say to everybody that we have to be very clear in understanding the message that was sent this week. And it isn't anti-Republican, pro-Democrat. Two years ago, Donald Trump won because people didn't like the direction of this country. And this year, people voted because they don't like this direction of the country. But they voted because everything is too expensive. Groceries are too expensive. The cost of gasoline has become a factor on how you travel, where you travel. People can't afford that. People can't afford rent, can't find a home to buy. The health care system is broken. And they don't like the culture of corruption in Washington. So Democrats have a very short period of time to actually deliver. They watched the sideshow in Washington. They watched all the drama, the inability to pass anything. They watched all of the president's executive orders to see how they were helping him. And Democrats need to understand that we are going to have to act very quickly to address the issues that are impacting working men and women across this country every day.
Rebekah Warren: We appreciate that focus, Congresswoman. And now that Democrats are in the majority in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate, what's at the top of your priority list for the next Congress in terms of environmental protection and public health?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: So both of those issues are very important to me. I think health care is, without fail, one of the most important issues that we have to address. We will have a 100-hour agenda and a 100-day agenda. And in the 100-hour agenda, we will quickly reverse the cuts to Medicaid that are impacting people, causing people already not to go to the doctor when they're sick, waiting to go to emergency rooms until they're very, very sick. People who can't afford the medicine, quite frankly, and it's not the topic of this show today on the environment. We have hungry people, hungry kids in our community throughout our state, hungry seniors, so reversing those cuts in that bill. And then, also reinstating the Affordable Care Tax Credits that help people have access will be among the very first actions that you see. We are all talking about what will be part of that 100-hour, 100-day. Environmental issues that you're talking about are more likely to be part of the 100-day agenda. Hakeem Jeffries established five work groups over the summer and before we left two months ago because Republicans haven't been working. One of them was on the environment and energy. I think people want to quickly understand how we reduce the cost of gasoline. We need to get out of the war in Iran. And then, what are the environmental issues? Many people are pushing for permitting reform. I think permitting reform is a very complicated issue, and we have to make sure that we're protecting the ability of communities to still have input and say about what's going to happen to them. A number of the environmental regulations that have passed, I believe that every person has a right to clean water, period, and shouldn't have to worry about whether they can afford it or not. I'll continue to work on those issues, but the EPA has lowered the PFAS standard in drinking water, which I started working on the minute I walked in the door. We're going backwards in a number of the EPA regulations, and we're going to have to take back and finance some of those to protect. We need to have clean air, clean water, clean ground, and make sure we're protecting that.
Rebekah Warren: WEMU's First Friday Focus on the Environment continues with our special guest, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. I'm Rebekah Warren, and my First Friday partner is president and CEO of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Lisa Wozniak.
Lisa Wozniak: Data centers have been at the forefront of lots of people's minds. We saw a lot of campaign ads on these issues, and there seemed to be almost a competition among candidates in terms of who had the strongest position to regulate them. We have also seen a number of high-profile and major data centers proposed in your congressional district. And these centers are controversial because of water use, because of energy, land use. What is on the agenda related to data centers for you and for Congress?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: So, first of all, I don't think we should have gone home in September. We should have been working on AI guardrails and data center legislation. I will be, next week, introducing a data center bill of rights, which I think will become one of the principal vehicles that the Energy and Commerce Committee will consider. We'll do both AI guardrails, AI regulation, and data centers will be handled separately. I've spent a lot of time on this because, as you do know, Lisa, the biggest ones are in my district, and, quite frankly, a couple of them are the biggest ones in the state, but a couple are the most in the country. And we need to address it. You talked about the water. We need to make sure that they're using closed-loop systems, but how do you monitor it and that you have an independent agency monitoring it and what is the impact on whatever the source of the water is? We need to make sure that residential rate users are protected. The data centers and whomever is doing the data centers need to be building out the infrastructure. How do you make sure the grid is safe? You need to have transparency. The community needs to have a seat at the table. You have to monitor environmental impact. You have to monitor noise and, again, have outside, independent people monitoring it. You need to have emergency agreements with the local governments and the state governments about how you would respond. You need strong community benefit programs that protect schools and nearby institutions. And if you don't want me to take up the whole radio show, I can't. But it's a very detailed data center bill of rights.
Rebekah Warren: Another issue very close to home, Congresswoman, just a few weeks ago, the EPA announced an agreement with Gelman Sciences that requires remedial investigation and a feasibility study, the excavation of dioxane-contaminated soil at the former burn pit. For residents who've waited four decades, what does this actually change and what should they look for?
Rep. Debbie Dingell: So, quite frankly, when I became a member of Congress I realized that it had been three decades of this being tied up in the courts, and the plume was spreading. And the first few years, as you well know, because you've been part of all those meetings, people said, "It will never get cleaned up. If you go to EPA, it'll take too long. They'll never put money into it," and all those things. The EPA has authority at the federal government level that nobody else has. You know, Rebekah, we had many, many public meetings with all four communities involved. The communities ended up voting to ask the governor to allow this to go on the national priority site. She did agree to it. We went through rulemaking. And to make a long story short, all those people who said a Republican EPA would never do nothing. I called the EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin. I said, "Lee, I know you're being lobbied to not do this. I'm telling you. Would you please look at this? This plume is spreading, and we need EPA authority to get it cleaned up." To everybody's surprise, but not mine, he did. And we're now on the National Priority List Superfund site, and you are seeing work done that has not been done before. And the second part of it is the federal government has the authority to make polluters pay, and what stunned me is that Gelman actually signed this agreement two weeks ago.
Rebekah Warren: Congresswoman Dingell, thank you so much for your time, your hard work and for offering us your insights today! That was Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, who represents Michigan's 6th Congressional District, which encompasses much of the WEMU listening area. I'm Rebekah Warren, and the other voice you heard today is my partner on First Friday Focus on the Environment, Lisa Wozniak, who serves as president and CEO of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. For more information on our conversation today and to access the First Friday Archive, visit our website at wemu.org. Thank you for listening to your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
ABOUT DEBBIE DINGELL:
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell represents Michigan’s 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she has made it a priority to be a voice for the Midwest on issues that matter most to working families.
A member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Debbie is a leader on efforts to grow manufacturing, improve access to quality affordable health care, support seniors and veterans and protect the Great Lakes. Recognized as one of the 25 hardest-working members of Congress, Debbie is focused on forging bipartisan solutions that support Michigan’s families and economy, including improving long-term care and ushering in the future of the American auto industry.
Before being elected to Congress, Debbie worked in the auto industry for more than three decades, where she was President of the General Motors foundation and a senior executive responsible for public affairs. She was also Chairman of the Wayne State University Board of Governors and continues to fight to make education more affordable and accessible in Congress.
ABOUT REBEKAH WARREN:
Rebekah previously served in the Michigan Legislature for 14 years, representing Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and broader Washtenaw County in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House, she chaired the Great Lakes and Environment Committee and helped lead bipartisan efforts to pass landmark water protection legislation implementing the Great Lakes Compact—widely recognized as one of the most significant freshwater protection laws. In the Senate, she served as Vice Chair and Ranking Member of the Natural Resources, Environment and Great Lakes Committee and worked extensively on issues including water quality, invasive species, renewable energy, land use and recycling policy.
ABOUT LISA WOZNIAK:
Lisa’s career spans over two decades of environmental and conservation advocacy in the political arena. She is a nationally-recognized expert in nonprofit growth and management and a leader in Great Lakes protections. Lisa is a three-time graduate from the University of Michigan, with a bachelor's degree and two ensuing master's degrees in social work and education.
Lisa serves a co-host and content partner in 89.1 WEMU's '1st Friday Focus on the Environment.'
RESOURCES:
Michigan League of Conservation Voters
EPA Reaches Agreement with Gelman Sciences to Address Contaminated Aquifer in Ann Arbor, Michigan
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