The Canary in the Coal Mind: Dead, Alive or in a Coma?

(Submitted WACWS)

Worldwide coal expert Steve Doyle believes that coal is on pace to overtake petroleum as the world’s primary source of energy. “While natgas and renewable energy have chipped away at coal’s share in the U.S. electricity market (currently 34 percent vs. 52 percent 15 years ago), coal will remain at the current level for many years to come, which makes it the most important single contributor to our nation’s electricity grid (before nuclear, natgas, hydro and renewable energy),” he writes.

Hosted by the World Affairs Council of Western Colorado, Doyle will speak at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 at the CMU South Ballroom. His presentation is entitled “The Canary in the Coal Mind: Dead, Alive or in a Coma?” This event is free to students and WACWC members, and it costs $10 for nonmembers. Doors will open at 5:45 p.m.

Doyle stresses the importance of coal by noting that metallurgical coal is an essential ingredient to steel making. “Try building a bridge, building, car, road, ship, pipeline, crane, tank, or even a wind turbine tower without steel,” he writes. “It isn’t realistic.”

Without overloading anyone with data and charts, Doyle will explain coal’s role in the global economy. Where it is mined. How it is shipped around the world. How the coalfields in our backyard (Colorado and Utah) play into all of this. Why the market is in one of its worst troughs ever and why he believes the stage might be setting up for an upcycle of epic proportion. Doyle will take his audience to many of his recent “coal destinations” in China, Northern Siberia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Indonesia and Australia.

And, yes, he promises to address the big elephant in the room: climate change. Doyle is an avid “coal guy,” a die-hard environmentalist and a humanitarian, who happens to believe that energy poverty is one of our world’s greatest afflictions.

How did Steve Doyle become a coal expert? The short answer: Hogan’s Heroes, the popular 1970’s sit-com. The long answer: Hogan’s Heroes was the reason he chose to study German at Drexel Hill Junior High (a suburb of Philadelphia). He liked German and continued with it through high school and eventually graduated from the University of Colorado (Boulder) in 1979 with a double-major in German and History.

After he received his MBA in 1982 from the Thunderbird International School of Management in Arizona, Doyle’s fluency in German landed him his first job in New York City with Ruhrkohle Trading Corporation, a German company that specialized in exporting U.S. coal all over the world.

By the end of his 15-year stint with Ruhrkohle and countless trips to the coalfields and export terminals, along with numerous trips to steel mills, cement kilns and power plants around the world, Doyle reached the level of general manager and left for greener pastures.

Coal was beginning to trade as a commodity on the futures exchanges, and Doyle started again on the ground level to master risk management and trading skills. After starting coal trading desks for several energy firms including Peabody Coal and Allegheny Energy, Doyle departed New York City when his last boss nearly bankrupted the company — a highly esteemed utility — by embezzling millions of dollars (and eventually went to prison).

As an expert in coal and coal trading, Doyle headed to Glade Park and started Doyle Trading Consultants LLC (DTC) to teach other companies how to properly manage their exposure to coal and how to establish credible risk management. Within a few years, DTC grew from a one-man shop into a twelve-person shop with offices in Grand Junction, New York City and Annapolis, Maryland. Along the way, DTC morphed from a risk management specialist into an organization dedicated to providing more than 200 clients with everything they needed to stay abreast of the U.S. and global coal markets

In 2013 Doyle sold his company to London-based Informa PLC and remained with the firm until April 2015. DTC’s Grand Junction office continues to be the foundation of the organization and recently hired its seventh graduate from Colorado Mesa University. Doyle established BtuBaron LLC in May 2015 to serve as a platform for publishing his research.

Doyle and his wife Sibylle live in Glade Park and in Duesseldorf, Germany.