AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) _ The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an amendment introduced by Maine Rep. Bruce Poliquin that's designed to protect the state's mills from what he says are burdensome regulations.
The Republican's amendment was attached to a spending bill approved by the Republican-controlled House this week. It seeks to block all funds for the Environmental Protection Agency's new boiler regulations.
Poliquin says the rules would cost the Sappi paper mill in Skowhegan and others across the country millions of dollars. He says his amendment will safeguard the hundreds of jobs at Sappi and elsewhere.
In a letter Poliquin sent to the EPA administrator earlier this year, he noted that increasing costs forced three Maine mills to close last year _ costing nearly 1,000 workers their jobs.