U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has always been a strong supporter of efforts to improve and protect our nation’s air quality and public health. A recent column by a Massachusetts-based group that claimed otherwise is just false (June 24).

Sen. Collins recently voted to uphold a clean air rule that requires coal-fired power plants to install pollution controls. Maine, which is located at the end of the nation’s “tailpipe,” is on the receiving end of pollution emissions from coal-fired plants operating in other states. Collins believes pollution reductions required under this rule will improve public health and the environment.

She also rejected a similar effort to dismantle EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, and she was the only Republican to stand up for the Clean Air Act when she voted to oppose an amendment which would have permanently banned EPA from acting on greenhouse gas emissions.

Sen. Collins has introduced bipartisan legislation that would give the EPA the time the agency itself requested to properly analyze the best methods for implementing the application of the Clean Air Act to certain boilers. Her goal is to help ensure that any final rules are protective of public health and the environment while being achievable and affordable for U.S. manufacturers.

Maine has lost more than a third of its manufacturing jobs during the past decade, and Sen. Collins remains committed to helping ensure that the Boiler MACT rules are crafted to protect public health without harming the forest products industry, which is the lifeblood of many small, rural communities, including many in western Maine.

Kevin Kelley, Washington, D.C.,

Communications director for Sen. Susan M. Collins