Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King are opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to weaken automobile efficiency regulations, a positive step for all of Maine. Now, we need them to keep Maine’s needs at heart and vote against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, a decision that will shape the court and our world for more than a generation.

In Maine, the nightmare of climate change is already here. Warming oceans, eroding shorelines, acidifying seawater, invasive species and increasing disease-bearing tick populations – all fueled by carbon pollution-driven climate change – threaten our fishing, natural resource and tourist economies and the livelihoods of Mainers in communities across our state. One hundred and fifty thousand Mainers suffer from asthma, among the highest asthma rate in the country. Worsening air pollution, hazardous ozone levels and climate change are threatening our health.

Kavanaugh, as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, wrote many opinions against the EPA’s ability to address toxic air pollution and climate change. With Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, bedrock public health protections like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act would be on the line. Mainers want neither more pollution nor increasing climate change, but that’s what Kavanaugh’s confirmation would mean.

Senators, this is a legacy decision. Our future is in your hands.

Nancy C. Anderson
Cumberland