GEARED TOWARD THE FUTURE

Long Beach City College is revving up for the future, as it plans to opens an automotive training center next week with a curriculum geared specifically to installing, testing and servicing “clean fuel” systems.

“We don’t want to send out harness makers in an age of the automobile,” said college spokesman Bill Zeilinger. “We want to prepare students to work on the next generation of vehicles rather than internal combustion engines.”

The idea for a training program was sparked when the city of Long Beach started using compressed natural gas vehicles, earning it California’s first “Clean City” designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1994.

Cal Macy, a City College automotive instructor, developed an intensive course to train technicians to work on the city’s alternative-fuel fleet. He took his program on the road, helping other companies that drive “clean fuel” cars.