As an 11-year volunteer with the American Lung Association, an avid outdoor enthusiast, and a marathoner, I have long appreciated the importance of healthy air. My father, who recently passed away after suffering from COPD, congestive heart failure and lung cancer, was acutely aware of poor air quality. Watching on as he struggled only strengthened my resolve to fight for clean, healthy air.

That is why I am so grateful that prior to Thanksgiving, Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe stood with Maine families like mine by voting against S.J. Res. 27. That Senate resolution would have given out-of-state polluters a pass as they off-loaded millions of tons of toxic pollution into the air that we ultimately breathe.

The votes cast by Snowe and Collins were critical, but there are still several proposals looming that would allow polluters to dump toxic emissions into the air we breathe. Uncharacteristically, Collins has even sponsored some of these bills.

It is not fair that people in Maine should breathe unhealthy air, while a handful of polluters benefit, mostly from Midwestern states.

I hope Maine’s senators and representatives will work to defeat all bills that would allow Maine air to be polluted. Mainers deserve and need nothing less than their full commitment to fight for healthy air.

Matthew Sturgis, Gray

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