Find Your State.
Follow the Money.
Eight states. One Basin. The fight to protect it runs through every statehouse, every zoning board, and every campaign finance record in the region. Here is how to find your legislators, track their donors, and hold them accountable.
Eight States. Two Strategies.
Five Basin states have citizen ballot initiative rights. Three do not. Your strategy depends on which state you are in. Find yours below and go straight to your state's action tools.
States with Citizen Initiative Rights
States Without Initiative Rights
Find Your Legislators
Each state entry includes a direct link to find your state legislators, the state campaign finance portal for donor records, and the federal OpenSecrets and FollowTheMoney links for cross-referencing. Use all three together.
How to Look Up Donor Records and What to Look For
You do not need months to build an accountability scorecard. You need the right tools and a focused formula. Here is the exact process.
Start with the Industry, Not the Politician
Go to opensecrets.org/industries and search the Utilities industry profile for your Basin state. It returns a ranked list of which politicians received the most utility money. That ranked list is your starting scorecard—sorted by level of compromise—in minutes. Start there instead of going politician by politician.
Cross-Reference with State Records
Use your state's campaign finance portal to find donations that may not appear in federal databases—dark money, PAC disclosures, and state-level filings. The full picture requires both federal and state data. OpenSecrets covers federal. Your state portal covers state races. FollowTheMoney.org covers both through 2024.
Cross-Reference Their Votes
Once you have the donor record, go to your state legislature's website and look up that legislator's voting record on environmental and utility legislation. If a legislator took utility money and voted against a water protection bill, that is the story. That is the accountability record you bring to a town hall, a zoning meeting, or a letter to the editor.
Regulated Utilities
DTE, Consumers Energy, FirstEnergy, We Energies, Exelon/ComEd, Enbridge, AEP, Xcel Energy. PACs, executives, and lobbyists.
Data Center & Tech
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle, Vantage, QTS, Equinix. PACs and direct contributions.
Broad Corporate Money
Wall Street PACs. Pharmaceutical industry PACs. Defense contractors. Corporate real estate and development PACs tied to data center land acquisition.
Active Legislation Across the Basin
Rights of Nature legislation and organizing moving right now across the eight Great Lakes Basin states. This section updates as bills move and communities organize.
New York—Assembly Bill A5156A, Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights
Introduced February 12, 2025, by Assemblyman Patrick Burke. In the Committee on Environmental Conservation. Track this bill →
Ohio—Cincinnati, Ohio River Watershed Ecosystem Bill of Rights
Citizen-driven charter amendment moving through Cincinnati's charter amendment process. Establishes ecosystem rights and community rights as inseparable.
Wisconsin—Green Bay, Rights of Nature Resolution
Green Bay City Council voted 9 to 1 in summer 2025 to begin drafting. Milwaukee County resolution passed 2023. Both under threat from AB421/SB420. Expected veto by Governor Evers.
Wisconsin—AB421/SB420, Statewide Ban on Rights of Nature Ordinances
Introduced September 2025 in direct response to Green Bay's organizing. Would prohibit any local government in Wisconsin from passing Rights of Nature ordinances. Expected to be vetoed by Governor Evers.
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