Natural gas service is coming to more of the midcoast. Summit Natural Gas says it will invest $90 million to expand along the Route 1 corridor from Belfast to Thomaston.
External Affairs Manager Chace Jackson says the price for gas should be competitive with heating oil. But he says there may be another inducement for potential customers.
“If a home converts from heating with oil to natural gas, you could see the carbon footprint of your home be reduced by about 38%. Which is obviously just huge,” he says.
Jackson says that’s the equivalent of putting solar panels on two homes. And he says Summit is trying to find more environmentally friendly sources of gas.
“We’re currently still in the early stages of an anaerobic digester plant here in the state that would take cow waste and turn it into renewable natural gas,” he says.
That’s for the future. For now, Summit says it will tap into the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline, which carries natural gas from Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick and into Maine.
Jackson says work on the needed gas pipelines will begin after the summer tourist season, and the expansion will create about 100 jobs, most of them to lay the pipe and install other equipment. he says the first customers could see their service begin sometime next year.
