I agree, the one on the left, with the split titles, works better from a design perspective. Because we read top-to-bottom, our eyes are automatically drawn to the top of a page, then travel down. That's where we naturally expect to see the title, headline, etc.

I agree with Angie, though – if it's possible to shift the image down a bit so the smokestacks aren't covered, that would be the best of both worlds.