Fossil Fuel Workers Switch to Green Jobs
Emma McConville was thrilled when she landed a job as a geologist at Exxon Mobil in 2017. She was assigned to work on a giant oil field off Guyana.
But after oil prices collapsed during the pandemic, she was laid off on a video call at the end of 2020.
Just four months later, she got a job with Fervo, a young Houston, Texas, company that aims to tap geothermal energy under the Earth’s surface. Today she manages the design of two Fervo projects in Nevada and Utah, and earns more than she did at Exxon.
“Covid allowed me to pivot,” she said. “Covid was an impetus for renewables, not just for me but for many of my colleagues.”
Oil and gas companies laid off roughly 160,000 American workers in 2020, and they hired cautiously over the last two years. But many renewable businesses expanded rapidly after the early shock of the pandemic faded, snapping up geologists, engineers and other workers from the likes of Exxon and Chevron. Half of Fervo’s 38 employees come from fossil fuel companies, including BP, Hess and Chesapeake Energy.
Executives and workers in energy hubs say steady streams of people are moving from fossil fuel to renewable energy jobs. Overall numbers suggest such career moves are becoming more common. Oil, gas and coal employment has not recovered to its prepandemic levels. But the number of jobs in renewable energy, including solar, wind, geothermal and battery businesses, is rising.
The oil and gas industry had roughly 700,000 fewer workers last year than six years earlier, a decline of over 20 percent. Much of that drop had to do with the slowing of the shale drilling boom and greater automation. By comparison, employment in wind energy grew nearly 20 percent from 2016 to 2021, to more than 113,000 workers.
In more than a dozen interviews, energy workers and executives said they had switched to renewable energy because they felt that the oil and gas industry’s best days were behind it. Others said they were no longer willing to tolerate the extreme ups and downs of oil and gas prices, and the accompanying cycle of rapid hiring followed by layoffs. Many said concerns about climate change, which is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, were a factor in their decision.
Jean Paul Beebe negotiated land leases for oil and gas companies before he was laid off early in the pandemic. He now works for Enel North America, a developer of renewable projects that is owned by an Italian energy company. He made a good living when shale drilling was booming, he said, but downturns took a toll on him.
“Riding that wave is a load, mentally,” Mr. Beebe said. “What I know now about renewables, it’s absolutely more stable.”
Many workers, including electricians, offshore construction engineers, information technology specialists and environmental surveyors, say the skills they honed in their oil and gas jobs have translated well to the work they are doing now.
“The basics are the same,” said Miguel Febres, a petroleum engineer who worked in the oil industry for 19 years and is now a planner for wind and solar projects at Enel.
“We install foundations, we install turbines, we build roads, we lay cables.”
Oil and gas executives say that there are still many good years of employment left in their industry.
Trent Latshaw, chief executive of Latshaw Drilling, which operates rigs in Oklahoma and Texas, said the demise of oil and gas jobs was greatly exaggerated. “A lot of people have been brainwashed that oil and gas are on the way out,” he said. “The oil industry so massively outweighs renewables and will for a very long time.”
But even Mr. Latshaw acknowledged that renewables were growing in importance.
Sunnova Energy, a solar and battery provider based in Houston, has expanded its staff to 1,400, from 350 in March 2020. Last year it doubled its Houston office space.
“There are a lot of people coming from oil and gas, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, I’m ready for a change,’ ” said Anthony Cervantes, who interviews job candidates.
Many openings in an energy field that is expanding.