“As a parent you want to give direction, and was I giving her the right direction?” she recalled.
At Shell, Taff was in charge of drilling wells and bringing them into production. She worked on oil and natural gas that’s called unconventional in the industry, because the oil or natural gas is difficult to get out of the ground — it doesn’t naturally gush out like in movies. It’s a term often used for oily shale rock. Taff was somewhat unconventional for the industry, too. Her coworkers used to tease her for driving an efficient hybrid.
“You’re not helping oil and gas prices by driving a Prius,” they’d say.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of an occasional series of personal stories from the energy transition — the change away from a fossil-fuel based world that largely causes climate change.
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Taff wanted Shell to pursue the energy that comes from the Earth’s natural heat — geothermal. Her team looked into it, but…


