Senator Mike Bishop Goes off the Deep End Defending His Dirty Deeds

In a recent interview with Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop had the opportunity to express his frustration with recent delays of new coal plant construction and defend his weak environmental voting record. According to Bishop, “One of my priorities is, and has always been, environment."

I assume Senator Bishop uses the term “priority” with a sense of irony. If the environment is one of Bishop’s priorities, I can only imagine the fate of those issues Bishop considers unimportant. Bishop scored 0% on the 2009-2010 Michigan Environmental Scorecard. He has a lifetime average score of 20%, which means that since the 2001-2002 legislative session, he has voted against the environment 80% of the time. If you are wondering what someone might possibly say in defense of such an astonishingly poor record, I suggest you listen to the interview, but listen with a grain of salt.

The examples of environmental protection Senator Bishop cites are unsupported by his legislative record. And his adamant defense of new coal plants in Michigan undermines any claim he makes to be an environmental advocate. Bishop plays the role of the victim --- to the dictatorial rule of Governor Granholm, to the shiftless Democratic lawmakers, to Michigan’s devastating budget deficit --- with such conviction and wide-eyed innocence that you almost feel bad for him, until you remember that he has actually been the boss of the Senate for the last four years.

Bishop has been an integral part of the leadership behind a painfully ineffective Legislature in Lansing, a Legislature that’s been unable to reach partisan agreement on much of anything, and has weakened environmental protection measures. An honest explanation (“No, the environment is not my priority, the economy is my priority”) would have been less offensive than Bishop’s defend-and-deny tactic, and his tired attempts to blame the Granholm administration (which, by the way, has made huge efforts in terms of establishing a clean energy economy in Michigan) for standing in the way of progress.

His argument feels like sound bites from a politician running for office, which Bishop is. He is campaigning to be Attorney General, and he explained to McCarus that his priorities as AG would be consumer protection, and “the protection of people and families." This from a guy who was all for a Rogers City-area coal plant that would have hiked consumer energy rates, and who has held public health legislation hostage in his Senate committee for months now.

Bishop’s answers say less about his policy positions and more about his long-term personal goals --- to stay in office. But Michigan needs leaders that actually act on their promises to protect our natural resources and environment. Bishop may have been offended at Michigan LCV’s suggestion that he is not, in fact, a friend of the environment.

His defensive statements only validate our reasons for publishing the Scorecard: To highlight the discrepancies between what our politicians say, and what they actually do.

--- Posted by Hannah Smith, Policy and Programs Associate.