The Operating Engineers Local 478 on Tuesday launched a training program to make workers available for Connecticut’s $7 billion natural gas home heating expansion.
The AFL-CIO union started its first class of 24 workers who will be taught the intricacies of natural gas transmission and distribution pipeline construction. The expansion is expected to begin in early 2014.
The $7 billion expansion is a cornerstone of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s comprehensive energy strategy, looking to convert the majority of businesses and homes to a heating fuel that burns significantly cleaner and cheaper than oil.
Roughly half of the $7 billion will be businesses and homeowners buying new equipment, and the rest will be the three natural gas utilities – Yankee Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas – expanding their pipelines and hooking up new customers.
On top of the $7 billion, the companies operating the pipelines feeding natural gas into Connecticut are eying a $2.2 billion expansion of their systems, in order to meet the increasing need for natural gas.
