As the world moves away from nonrenewable fuel sources, we spoke to local folks who have actually made the dive in current years from working in oil and gas to working for tidy energy business in Southern California. This is one story in that four-part series.

Check out the introduction here: From fossil fuel tasks to tidy energy: Profiles of locals who've made the jump

Check out a 2nd employee here: White collar refinery worker trades job in oil for biofuel

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

Josh Harding may have grown up in Oklahoma, however that didn't mean his moms and dads were delighted when, right after college graduation, a friend's father offered to teach him to be a "land man." It meant he would help speculators get titles, leases and allows to drill new oil and gas wells.

" Honestly, my moms and dads are hippies," the 39-year-old said, smiling through his brown beard. "So they were never ever huge fans of me being in the oil and gas company."

But in 2006, when Harding finished with a double significant in journalism and economics, natural gas costs were skyrocketing. It was the very first genuine energy-related hiring boom in the area given that the stock exchange crash of 1987, so he said most tasks in the sector were held by folks older than 50. That suggested a great deal of opportunity for more youthful individuals, like Harding, who might advance rapidly if they wanted to work hard.

Harding invested 13 years working in oil and gas, completing his profession in that sector doing internal land work for bigger companies. But while he took pleasure in the work, he stated the market's "cowboy culture" was never a best fit for him. When the company he was at in 2019 faltered, he turned down other deals in the oil market, deciding to take a substantial severance bundle and utilize that time to transition to renewables.

Today, he's senior manager of land acquisition for Avantus, a green energy business based in Los Angeles. He's working from another location from Oklahoma in the meantime, but plans to move his family to Orange County later on this year.

When he first went to renewables with a Bay Area company, Harding said he did take a pay cut. He said, "I was fine with that because I understood that I had a lot to learn." And within two years, he stated he was actually making more than in the past.

Former coworkers, and even strangers on LinkedIn, often connect to ask how the sectors compare.

" I constantly tell people it's like 60% or 70% the exact same ability," he said. "But the 30 to 40% that's various is so different that if you're not going to modest yourself, inspect your ego, and just confess that there are a lot of things that you're going to have to learn from scratch, you will not have an effective transition."

While no one believes fossil fuel jobs are going away tomorrow, Harding said many people in that sector have actually revealed issue about the long-term practicality of their tasks. A former colleague's child, for example, just graduated college. His dad had the ability to get him a job in oil and gas. At 24 years old, he told Harding, "I can't picture that there's a world where I'm gon na really be living the great life working an oil and gas task in 40 years." He's looking to make the dive now, while he's still young.

" They see which method the winds are blowing and they want to ride with the wind instead of battling against it," Harding stated.

He does take occasional ribbing from buddies still in the oil and gas world. One former employer likes to ask, "How's the hippy world treatin' you, Josh?"

Harding laughs such jokes off. He said those hippy moms and dads of his are "pretty pumped" about where he's landed.