Flaccavento tours Radford building materials manufacturer
ACME Panel co-owner Joe Fortier (on right) talks to Democrat Anthony Flaccavento about his Radford business
9th District Democrat Anthony Flaccavento, a farmer and sustainability consultant challenging freshman Congressman Morgan Griffith, traveled to Radford this afternoon to tour ACME Panels.
ACME Panels manufactures energy-efficient building materials. Co-owner Joe Fortier said that homes built with his company’s panels — which look like thick Styrofoam wedged between panels of plywood — are 50 percent more efficient when it comes to heating or cooling than a stick-built house. Fortier claims the typical household will save $700 a year in utility costs — he says that number will go up if “this country accepts that global warming is real and decides to do something about it” and energy costs rise in response.
The tour fit into Flaccavento’s argument that efficiency and conservation is a key part of the equation in replacing fossil fuels over the long term. If you reduce the amount of energy required to heat or cool homes, Flaccavento said, then “renewables become a plausible source of energy to the degree that we get the same amount of heating from a smaller amount of input.”
Flaccavento dismissed Solyndra, a solar company that received a $527 million federal loan before going bankrupt, saying that “you can find horror stories” in any industry.
And he dismissed questions about what the Republicans have termed a “war on coal,” arguing that many of the regulations targeted by the GOP originated under President George W. Bush. He said the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush administration relaxed those regulations, but that the coal industry still lost roughly 20 percent of the jobs in mines during that time due to mechanization and market forces. But Flaccavento said the “war on coal” has been “an amazingly effective term” that’s “worked well for the industry and the right wing of the Republican Party.”
Flaccavento received the endorsement of the United Mine Workers of America earlier this year, but Griffith has been a vocal proponent of the coal industry, as well as an outspoken critic of the EPA, particularly under President Obama, since he successfully defeated longtime incumbent Rick Boucher in 2010.
– Mason Adams
September 24, 2012 - 5:52 PM
I feel very sure that the taxpayers of the U.S. find the Solyndra debacle as more than just a `horror story`….Where is that $$$ ??? It mostly came back in the form of campaign donations to obama…Its called ` slight of hand through thuggery`.
“I’m very sure they do too Jeff Doto. The right wing has trumpeted it like it was the first and original “bridge to nowhere” in this nation.
I also feel very sure that the taxpayers of the US find the spectacle and hypocrisy of the right wing on the Solyndra and many other issues a part of the “horror story” of what the TP/GOP did to this nation and are now blaming on Obama.
Do you even imagine that none of the first oil, gas or refining businesses that got loans, subsidies or tax breaks the US taxpayer made went bust before the industry was on its own feet? Oh, that’s right, they still aren’t.
Do you recall the George Steinbrenner ships?
“The bungling and defaults of Steinbrenner’s firm and Penn Ship Co. of Philadelphia add up to “$450 million, and the American taxpayer received no ships,” said Sen. William Roth (R-Del.), the subcommittee’s chairman.
“The two unfinished ships are now rusting in the James River off Virginia,” Roth said. “They will probably never be finished.”
http://articles.nydailynews.com/1995-05-03/news/17965401_1_ships-contract-pentagon
This is just one of the many examples of a “free lunch” David Cay Johnston talks about in his book: Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)
No, we don’t like the Sloyndra deal, but we know that has always happened. And always will happen. Sometimes business people are just crooks who are using the taxpayers. Sometimes they are not.
Solyndra Failure Obscures Low-Risk Energy Guarantees
“The study concludes that 87 percent of the $16.1 billion in loan guarantees is backing 18 power generation projects, which have a low risk of default because they were required to have buyers for their power output. Ten manufacturing, fuel production and storage projects, which make up the remaining 13 percent of the portfolio value, were not required by DOE to find buyers in order to receive guarantees.“
Not going to vote for him, but once again thanks for the great article.
Good to see people campaigning in Radford City!
I think Anthony hasn’t been able to get his message out on a level that will help him win. He’s definitively doing right by campaigning in the NRV, but down around his home he has clear formidable opposition.
If Anthony wins big in the NRV, and Abingdon, I think he could win. I don’t think that will happen as SWVA will probably vote in vast majority for Romney and Giffith, because of Obama.
Though I think it would be cool to have a farmer as a US Rep.
Flaccavento is thinking like a 21st century person should think. His opponent is back in an earlier century and he hopes the electorate will not notice.
He sounds too smart to be a politician. In a righteous world, he would win in a landslide. The people who preach “throw the bums out” and “no career pols” when it is a Dem will not preach that sermon in this case. Telling. Good luck to a fine man. Godspeed Mr. Flaccavento!
I find it appealing that Anthony has been campaigning every Sunday in churches, which shows he is trying to reach out to the religious community. I don’t even know if Griffith goes to church. I just don’t know enough about Anthony to vote for him.
Yes, Sandi, I find it appealing that Anthony works for a living.