For James Hiatt, the 43 year old founder and director of For a Better Bayou, a nonprofit seeking to foster alternatives to the fossil fuel economy in Southwestern Louisiana, the oil and gas industry isn’t just in his blood; it’s in his nostrils.

“My dad worked at Conoco, now Phillips 66. He’d come home in his Nomex [fire retardant garments] smelling like the refinery after 12-hour shifts,” Hiatt said. “He missed a lot of family stuff. I told myself I was never going to work in the refinery.” 

Instead, he got married at 19 and moved in 2002 with his wife to New York City, a young couple with a plan: she’d teach school while earning a master’s degree, and he’d pursue rock star dreams and get a day job to help pay the bills.

His first such job was in a Times Square hotel with Jewish owners, a Pakistani manager, and a Nigerian bellman. His previous worldview — conservative, Christian, conformist — was exploded by the diversity. The owner, a Holocaust survivor, had a number tattooed on his arm by the Nazis; the bellman fasted for the entire month of Ramadan while hauling luggage up three or four flights without a sip of water. Against the intense glow of neon lights, Hiatt found himself considering morality, sacrifice, and his own values and their impacts. 

Read the Article on Blue Dot Living