Alaska labor department gets $7.5M for natural gas line worker training

The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a $7.5 million competitive grant to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development to help the state train the 8,300 workers that will be needed to construct a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Lower 48 markets.

“The gas pipeline will bring Alaska’s energy to America, stimulate our state’s economy, and create thousands of new jobs,” U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said June 29 in a press release commending the federal labor department.

“This is an essential project which must move forward as quickly as possible,” Stevens said. “By providing workers with the skills they need, this grant will help ensure the pipeline’s swift and successful construction. I am encouraged by the proactive approach taken by administration and state officials to begin training pipeline workers.”

This grant is in addition to the $20 million in the Conference Report of the fiscal year 2005 Military Construction Appropriations Act that U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, Stevens and the other U.S. senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, also a Republican, were able to secure for an Alaska Pipeline Construction Training Program.

—Petroleum News