Gretchen Whitmer delivers State of the State address.
Gretchen Whitmer delivers the 2025 State of the State address Wednesday, Feb. 26. Photo courtesy of the State of Michigan.

Overview:

-Whitmer pledges to collaborate with anyone to benefit Michiganders, yet omits environmental protection and justice issues.
-Whitmer's budget proposal includes $7 million for water affordability, a fraction of the estimated $100 million needed.
-State Sen. Stephanie Chang has championed affordability legislation for a decade.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer started her seventh annual State of the State address with a familiar theme: “the importance of working with anyone to get things done for Michiganders.”

That includes working with the Trump administration, with which Whitmer said she “hopes to find common ground.”

Whitmer, a Democrat, focused on three priorities that will drive her work in 2025; lowering costs for families, jobs development, and delivering results.

Absent in the 45-minute speech was any mention of environmental protection and justice issues, such as holding polluters accountable for their actions and the high cost of drinking water and its impact on those who can’t afford to pay for the essential service. 

Environmental priorities shift in Lansing

Pollution and drinking water were previously Whitmer priorities as a candidate for governor in 2018. But they fell down the environmental priority list when Whitmer, as governor, focused on her climate change agenda and rolling out PFAS, or forever chemical, regulations.

Environmental and justice groups kept a spotlight on both issues and legislation to address them was in a position to pass in 2024 when Democrats controlled the state House and Senate. Legislative momentum had been building for a decade. 

Action was deferred to the end of the legislative lame duck session, which devolved into chaos, and the clock ran out. Both the polluter pay and water affordability bills must be reintroduced, and the House now has a Republican majority, which could make passage of both more difficult. 

Whitmer included $7 million in her recent budget proposal for drinking water affordability, far from the estimated $100 million needed to support a statewide program. 

State Sen. Stephanie Chang, a Detroit Democrat, has sponsored affordability legislation for 10 years. She’s previously declined to speculate on Whitmer’s public reticence on the legislation. 

“She’s the governor of a big state with a lot of issues and it’s our job as legislators to deliver those policy solutions to her desk and that’s where the focus is now,” Chang told Great Lakes Now in 2024.  

Reacting to Whitmer’s address, the Michigan Sierra Club’s deputy legislative and political director, Tim Minotas, said in a statement that “Gov. Whitmer and the state legislature must recommit to defending all Michiganders and lead on issues that will continue the progress we have made, from water and housing affordability to community solar, utility accountability and grid reliability.”

A focus on those priorities aligns with those articulated by Whitmer in her speech, Minotas said.  

Whitmer says Palisades will provide ‘clean, reliable power’

Whitmer named the pending restart of the aged Palisades nuclear power plant that borders Lake Michigan as an accomplishment. 

“Palisades will become the first restarted nuclear power plant in American history, protecting 600 local union jobs and clean, reliable power for hundreds of thousands of people,” Whitmer said. 

On the decision to restart Palisades, the Michigan Sierra Club said in 2024 that “nuclear is not necessary for Michigan’s economy or its clean energy future,” naming solar and wind energy as less expensive ways to power the grid. 

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Gary Wilson is a Chicago-based contributor who has reported on Great Lakes issues for public media since 2011.