Tuesday, September 28, 2010

"What I Choose Is My Choice"

Read the headline and you think, "Well, of course!" Or maybe you think, "That's a pretty lame attempt at prose." But read it as Billy Corgan screeched the lyrics in Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm" and you get a sense of what your choice can symbolize.

Why the poetic bent to begin this post? Views like this can put you in a lyrical state of mind.


Energy NOW! photojournalist Ian McAllister and I recently traversed Pennsylvania for a story on clean energy jobs, a journey that took us into the upper reaches of the Marcellus Shale. And in that shale gas haven, we met Brian Nielsen. He's a Midstream Operations Superintendent with Chesapeake Energy based in Horseheads, NY.


What? You don't know where Horseheads is? Easy. You just leave Towonda and head Northwest. OK, OK...it's just outside of Elmira (home to one of Dunder Mifflin's regional branches).

Anyway, Brian's story is simple but I think quite compelling. After spending the last 15 or so years in energy transportation (for lack of a better term), Brian jumped to CHK just a few months ago. His rationale? He's from the area, he sees what the discovery of natural gas shale means for his hometown, and he wants to be part of the clean energy revolution.


It's his choice.

Just like it was Billy Corgan's choice to play every single instrument on Smashing Pumpkins' albums and relegate the rest of the band to concert tour duty and lame music video posing. What I choose...