AUB CELEBRATES GAS UTILITY WORKERS’ DAY ON MARCH 18

ATHENS, Tenn. – AUB will join utilities across the nation to observe national Gas Utility Workers’ Day on March 18, 2020.  This is the fifth year that a day of recognition has been set aside to honor the employees who provide one of their most valuable assets- natural gas.  

The National Gas Utility Workers’ Day is March 18 because that is the date of the New London, Texas school explosion in 1937 that led to the widespread odorization of natural gas and an increased emphasis on safety.  Safety is a vital aspect to natural gas distribution and the employees of distribution companies endeavor to make natural gas delivery as safe as possible. 

Natural gas is a vital part of the AUB portfolio. AUB Natural Gas offers quality, comfort, convenience and reliability to the homes, business, and industrial customers of McMinn County.  “Many people don’t realize that AUB has natural gas lines all the way into the northwestern side of the county serving homes, churches, businesses and even the elementary school,” said AUB’s Wayne Scarbrough. 

“Natural gas delivers heat faster to appliances such as water heaters and nothing beats cooking with gas. It is a clean-burning fuel and with TVA using natural gas to generate electricity it can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants currently using fossil fuels,” states Sheree Reed, AUB’s Natural Gas superintendent. 

Our Natural Gas department consists of a mere 10 employees.  They are all very skilled in their trade and take their job extremely serious.  We currently supply around 6,400 natural gas customers and maintain approximately 440 miles of distribution lines. As you can imagine this keeps them on their toes on a daily basis.  A very important part of the gas division is the 811 Call Before You Dig location program.  Our crews completed 5,098 request tickets last year.  AUB also owns and operates a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) filling station on Holiday Drive, just off I-75’es exit 49. With natural gas prices remaining low for any application, the satisfied customer base continues to grow. 

AUB looks forward to continuing to bring safe, reliable natural gas into your homes and businesses.  We also hope you will join us in supporting natural gas as a premier energy source for our community. As the cleanest burning fossil fuel, natural gas can help us achieve energy security and build a more competitive economy. 

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