McKinley: Conserving energy key to success

WHEELING – Republican congressional candidate David B. McKinley wants to put people back to work by making the nation’s courthouses and municipal buildings more energy efficient.

He thinks his plan can be financed by taking 5 percent of the money currently designated for foreign aid, an amount that equals about $2.5 billion.

McKinley – a civil engineer and businessman – told of his ideas to both improve the economy and decrease energy consumption in taxpayer-owned buildings while addressing members of the Ohio-Brooke Counties Farm Bureau Tuesday night at Hoss’s Steak House in Elm Grove.

McKinley, 63, noted he has 45 years of experience in the construction business, an industry that he said has a 35-percent unemployment rate.

“And you can’t build an economy without having our people working,” he said. “We have been thinking about this and are thinking about using construction crews across America to go to courthouses to make them more energy efficient.

“We would put new roofs on and make them less energy consumptive,” he continued. “They would get new windows, new furnaces and new, smart electrical systems.”

McKinley said his firm has designed two schools in such a manner and is working on a third.

“The first advantage to this is that we would be putting people back to work,” he said. “Secondly, we would be going into counties that don’t have the money, making them more energy efficient and saving taxpayer money. Thirdly, we would be buying less foreign oil.”

McKinley said he also has an idea about how to pay for his plan, and it doesn’t involve the federal government borrowing more money from foreign counties.

“I don’t want to borrow more money,” he commented. “We have to stop this spending. I just want to take 5 percent from our foreign aid.”

The United States spends about $50 billion a year “taking care of the needs of people all around the world,” according to McKinley.

“But we have an aging infrastructure in America,” he continued. “Our bridges are in decay, our waterlines are blowing up and our sewer lines too old. We have to get back to where we are taking care of America while we’re reaching out, and I’m only asking for 5 percent to take care of our needs in America. We will put people to work and save energy while we do it.”

McKinley’s opponent in the Nov. 2 general election, current state Sen. Mike Oliverio, D-Monongalia, was invited to attend the event but did not respond to the invitation, according to Eric Jack of the Ohio-Brooke Counties Farm Bureau.

Other state legislators also were invited but indicated they could not attend because of interim sessions currently happening in Charleston. Among them were Delegates Orphy Klempa, D-Ohio, and Tim Ennis and Roy Givens, both D-Brooke.

Republicans Erikka Storch and Dolph Santorine, both candidates for the House of Delegates in the 3rd District, and Charles Schlegel, candidate for state Senate in the 1st District, addressed the farm bureau members.

Shawn Fluharty and Ryan Ferns, Democratic candidates for the House of Delegates 3rd District, were not present.

Also speaking was Sally Wells Ezell, Republican candidate for Ohio County clerk. She faces incumbent Democrat Patty Fahey in the general election.

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