As the world moves far from nonrenewable fuel sources, we spoke to local folks who've made the jump in recent years from operating in oil and gas to working for tidy energy companies in Southern California. This is one story in that four-part series.

Check out the introduction here: From nonrenewable fuel sources to tidy energy: Profiles of locals who've made the switch

Check out a second worker here: Permit professional's profession switch from oil to tidy energy pleases 'hippy' moms and dads

Read about a third employee here: Exxon engineer who moved to tidy energy provides career guidance: ‘‘ Take a leap'

Kathy Gleeson of Fullerton didn't actually set out to change from an oil refinery task to an eco-friendly fuels task. Rather, the task altered around her.

As she worked her way through Cal State Fullerton, making a finance degree in the late 1970s and early '80s, Gleeson took numerous jobs through a temperature firm. One landed her in representing Independent Valley Energy Company, which then had a small oil refinery in Bakersfield. That business produced synthetic petroleum, then sent it down to Paramount Petroleum's bigger refinery for additional processing.

By the mid '80s, as an oil excess drove down prices from the previous years's energy crisis, Gleeson stated both business were "going to pieces." When they combined, in 1984, she went to the Paramount center. "Been here since," she said with a laugh.

Independent Valley Energy is among 27 oil refineries that's closed down in California over the years, per records with the California Energy Commission. Eighteen other refineries are still active. And 3 more are listed as idle, including the facility where Gleeson now works.

These days that center is understood as World Energy, the name of the business that purchased it in 2018.

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

World Energy kept a number of the oil refinery employees on throughout the transition five years back. Some who were let go continued operating in oil and gas, moving to refineries in Carson or Wilmington, Gleeson stated. And, she added, they've had the ability to bring others back as the start-up has actually grown, with managers eager to tap the experience those employees have.

" The technology is extremely similar," she said. "So you want individuals that comprehend the very same type of operation."

Her own salary and work as director of ecological services, helping to permit equipment and guarantee compliance with guidelines, does not look much various since the shift, Gleeson stated. However a few things have altered.

" With the refinery, we were considering enduring daily due to the fact that the market was slowing - - and particularly asphalt, which was our little specific niche," Gleeson said. So pivoting to eco-friendly fuels, she stated, "brought us back into business."

While regulations and ecological rules are still stiff, she also said her business deals with less opposition than it did when it was an oil refinery.

" You see a difference in the community assistance and the regulatory assistance, because federal and state (regulators) are really encouraging renewable fuels operations."

And while Gleeson stated it's been a bit sad to see the taking apart of a plant she worked to allow for many years, she's delighted for what's ahead.

" Having your customers come going to you because you're offering this item that's going to assist them fulfill their objectives, it's great. It feels like you're doing something favorable out there."