Warren, the mayor of Newton, talked about energy issues during a stop at National Fiber Co. in Belchertown.
This is an updated version of a story posted at 4:16 this afternoon.
Chris Hock, left, owner of Nationial Fiber Co., shows Senate candidate Setti D. Warren the insulation manufacturing process at National Fiber.BELCHERTOWN – Newton Mayor Setti D. Warren said Wednesday he chose the National Fiber insulation factory for one of his first U.S. Senate campaign stops because the company employs people who make energy conserving products, which will be a major theme in his candidacy.
Warren announced this week that he will seek the Democratic nomination to run for U.S. Senate in 2012 against incumbent Republican Scott P. Brown.
“One of my priorities is job creation, particularly in the area of energy conservation and renewable energy,” Warren said. “This is a company that has been doing it.”
Chris Hoch, who owns National Fiber, said his company, which produces cellulose insulation at 50 Depot St., has 32 workers.
Warren said that with the national unemployment rate hovering close to 9 percent, job creation would be a top goal if he is elected to the Senate, and the examples set by National Fiber for having a growing business in the field of energy conservation are areas to concentrate his efforts.
As mayor of Newton, Warren said he played a role along with the Board of Aldermen in having his city apply successfully to become one of the state’s Green Communities.
This program provides state grant money for qualifying municipalities for energy efficiency measures, and Warren said Newton will be spending its grant funds this summer for renovations to a community center that will make the building more energy efficient.
Warren said that if he is elected he would vote in accordance with the values of the state of Massachusetts and said Brown went against those values when he cast votes in the Senate against the Head Start program for pre-schoolers and against funding for police, teachers and firefighters.
“He questions the science behind global warming,” Warren said. “Those are the values I am talking about.”
Warren also said he would fight in the Senate against any attempt to repeal the health reform bill enacted in 2010, but said he would support some changes in it.
“We ought to defend the bill, but there are areas we have to reform,” Warren said.
Warren, 40, was elected to a four-year term as mayor of Newton in 2009.
Prior to that he was a Naval intelligence specialist who served in Iraq, a New England regional director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a special assistant for cabinet affairs in the White House under President Clinton and a member of the staff of U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry.
Alan Khazei, Bob Massie and Marisa DeFranco are also seeking the Democratic Senate nomination.