From Fossil Fuel Jobs to Clean Energy: Profiles of Locals Who’ve Made the Jump

April 24, 2023

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by Brooke Staggs (Southern California News Group/Orange County Register) ... But Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, who worked to bring green jobs to Southern California before he got elected, argues that tax provisions for renewables make sense for the environment and the economy. Levin cited research from the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator that says every $1 million in spending on renewable energy creates 7.5 full-time jobs, nearly three times higher than the 2.7 jobs produced by the same investments in fossil fuels.

“And in terms of the subsidies that are provided, or the tax policies that are beneficial for renewables, I would just point to the incredibly generous tax policies and subsidies that have gone to the fossil fuel industry for decades,” he said.

“We’re just looking for a level playing field.”

Even before such funding and worker predictions came out, Auld (Stefanie Auld who helps oversee hiring for the Los Angeles-based green energy company Avantus) said she rarely heard concerns about job security or stability from workers looking to pivot from conventional to renewable energy. Instead, she said she more often gets questions about how salaries compare, what skills transfer and how folks already working in clean energy might perceive those coming from fossil fuel sectors.

Since renewable energy is still a relatively new field, Auld noted people often come in with experience working in different energy sectors. Avantus has maybe five or six people who came directly from conventional energy, she said. But she suspects a majority of the roughly 200 people on their team have some background in fossil fuels.

“We’re all trying for the same goal, which is to provide enough energy to the world and to have it be stable and reliable and safe,” she said.

In terms of skills transfer, Auld said there is a good deal of overlap between conventional and renewable energy. Companies like hers often provide on-the-job training to close any gaps. And since renewable companies compete with conventional energy companies for talent, Auld said they do studies to make sure salaries are comparable.

As this trend accelerates, we spoke with three people who’ve made the jump in recent years from working in oil and gas to working for clean energy companies in Southern California. Here are their stories.

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Excerpt from White collar refinery worker... : Kathy Gleeson says switch brought her employers "back into business."

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Independent Valley Energy is one of 27 oil refineries that’s shut down in California over the years, per records with the California Energy Commission. Eighteen other refineries are still active. And three more are listed as idle, including the facility where Gleeson now works.

But these days that facility is known as World Energy, the name of the company that bought it in 2018.

Even prior to the deal, owners of the 65-acre refinery in Paramount were converting the facility to produce renewable fuels. Today, it’s one of the few plants worldwide using hydrogen to turn used cooking oil and tallow into more climate-friendly jet fuel.

World Energy kept many of the oil refinery workers on during the transition five years ago. Some who were let go continued working in oil and gas, moving to refineries in Carson or Wilmington, Gleeson said. And, she added, they’ve been able to bring others back as the startup has grown, with managers eager to tap the experience those workers have.

“The technology is very similar,” she said. “So you want people that understand the same type of operation.”

Her own salary and work as director of environmental services, helping to permit equipment and ensure compliance with regulations, doesn’t look much different since the transition, Gleeson said.

But a few things have changed.

“With the refinery, we were thinking about surviving day to day because the industry was slowing — and particularly asphalt, which was our little niche,” Gleeson said. So pivoting to renewable fuels, she said, “brought us back into business.”

While regulations and environmental rules are still rigid, she also said her company faces less opposition than it did when it was an oil refinery.

“You see a difference in the community support and the regulatory support, because federal and state (regulators) are really encouraging renewable fuels operations.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Permit expert’s career switch from oil to clean energy pleases ‘hippy’ parents : For Josh Harding, learning the ropes of a new industry required humility; led to a bigger paycheck.

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Harding spent 13 years working in oil and gas, finishing his career in that sector doing in-house land work for larger companies. But while he enjoyed the work, he said the industry’s “cowboy culture” was never a perfect fit for him. So when the company he was at in 2019 faltered, he turned down other offers in the oil industry, opting to take a hefty severance package and use that time to transition to renewables.

Today, he’s senior manager of land acquisition for Avantus, a green energy company based in Los Angeles. He’s working remotely from Oklahoma for now, but plans to move his family to Orange County later this year.

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Harding said he did take a pay cut when he first went to renewables with a Bay Area firm. But, he said, “I was okay with that because I knew that I had a lot to learn.” And within two years, he said he was actually making more than before.

Former colleagues, and even strangers on LinkedIn, sometimes reach out to ask how the sectors compare.

“I always tell people it’s like 60% or 70% the same skill set,” he said. “But the 30 to 40% that’s different is so different that if you’re not not willing to humble yourself, check your ego, and just admit that there are a lot of things that you’re going to have to learn from scratch, you will not have a successful transition.”

While no one thinks fossil fuel jobs are going away tomorrow, Harding said many people in that sector have expressed concern about the long-term viability of their jobs. A former coworker’s son, for example, just graduated college. His dad was able to get him a job in oil and gas. But at 24 years old, he told Harding, “I can’t imagine that there’s a world where I’m gonna really be living the good life working an oil and gas job in 40 years.” So he’s looking to make the jump now, while he’s still young. READ MORE

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Excerpt from Exxon engineer.....: Nathan Lee switched from a carbon energy giant to a clean energy startup, but kept original goal — to make a difference.

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, though, Lee said it prompted him to think about how the world was changing. While he was working on a powerful refinery unit in the Gulf Coast, it was built during World War II. And he was eager to start using all he’d learned to make more of a difference while working with newer technologies that could make the world a better place for his two kids.

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In August 2020, Lee resigned from ExxonMobil and moved his family to California. At the time he didn’t have any real plan beyond knowing he wanted to work in renewable energy. Several months later, thanks to a recommendation that popped up on his LinkedIn page, Lee started as a test facilities engineer, helping to run Heliogen’s concentrated solar power plant in Lancaster. Today, he lives in the San Fernando Valley and works as senior systems engineer. And his employer recently won a slew of grant money and contracts to help clean up emissions-heavy industries, such as cement, using the power of the sun.

When he took the gig, Lee said, he knew next to nothing about concentrated solar. But he studied some books and slide decks, and asked lots of questions of current employees, who he said were eager to have more people on their team. And Lee said his skills transferred well, with day-to-day work that “feels a lot the same” as what he did before.

One big change is the pace, which Lee called “refreshing.” He said they can come up with ideas, launch experiments and deploy new technologies in rapid timeframes that just wouldn’t be possible at larger companies. READ MORE