Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the DTE Energy Company Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Jerry Anderson, Executive Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead, sir.
Well, good morning, everyone, and I welcome all of you to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of DTE Energy Company. So we are meeting virtually for the first time in company history in an effort to keep all of the participants on this call healthy and safe. So before we begin, please note the rules of conduct located on the welcome page for this meeting. Our agenda today, we'll start with a review of the proposals, followed by a short question and answer session, and we'll close with a report from the corporate secretary. You may submit a question at any time by clicking on the conversation icon located at the top of the welcome page.
So first, I'd like to introduce the nominees who are standing for election to the Board of Directors. And they have all consented to serve if elected, and their names appear in the proxy statement for this meeting. All nominees will serve for 1 year terms ending in 2021. And the nominees are David A. Brandon, Non Executive Chairman of Domino's Pizza Charles G.
McClure, Managing Partner, Michigan Capital Advisors Gail J. McGovern, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Red Cross Mark Murray, Retired Vice Chairman of Meijer Incorporated Jerry Norcia, President and CEO of DTE Energy Ruth Shaw, Retired President and CEO of Duke Power Company Robert Skaggs, Retired CEO, Columbia Pipeline Group and NiSource Incorporated David Thomas, President of Morehouse College Gary Torgow, Executive Chairman of TCF Financial Corporation James Vandenberg, Retired Vice Chairman and Former Director of Leer Corporation Valerie Williams, retired Southwest Assurance Managing Partner, Ernst and Young and I am also standing for reelection at this meeting. Also present today are some members of our senior management team and we may call upon them during the short question and answer period. Doug Beck, a representative from our independent public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is also in attendance. The proxy committee for today's meeting consists of Lisa Mushong and Joanne Chavez.
EQ Shareholder Services has been appointed by the Board of Directors as the Inspector of Election for this meeting and Angela Stewart, a representative of EQ, is in attendance. Lisa Mushong, Vice President and the company's Corporate Secretary, will report on the voting results at the appropriate time. So Ms. Mushong has informed me that the meeting is properly convened and a quorum is present. If you have already voted your shares, there's no need for you to take any action during this meeting.
If you have not yet voted your shares and wish to do so, please follow the instructions on the welcome page for this meeting. So a certified record of registered owners of common stock of the company, as of the record date is available for examination by shareholders during this meeting. Please submit requests via email to the email address located on the voting page. EQ will provide you with a link to examine the record of registered share owners. So I'd like now to review the 4 proposals that we are voting on today.
First, the election of directors second, the ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020 3rd, the vote on an advisory proposal to approve executive compensation and 4th, the vote on a shareholder proposal to require additional disclosure of political contributions. Please note that during the Annual Meeting, we will do our best to answer questions from shareholders pertaining to each proposal being considered. And then general questions from shareholders will be addressed following the meeting during the question and answer session. So at this time, the polls are open for voting. Again, if you've already voted your shares, you need not take any action.
So it's now in order to consider the election of the 12 directors. Earlier, I introduced the nominees whose names appear in the proxy statement. As described more fully in the proxy statement, if elected, the 12 nominees will serve 1 year terms that expire at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders in 2021. And the company has not received notice of any other nominations for the position of Director as required by the bylaws. And accordingly, there are no other nominees.
You cannot accumulate votes for directors. You simply vote for or withhold your vote from each nominee And you can't vote for more than 12 nominees. So are there any questions or comments pertaining to the first proposal, Barb?
There are no questions.
Okay. Thank you. And we'll move on to the second proposal. So the next order of business is to consider the proposal to ratify the Audit Committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for 2020. Barb, are there any questions or comments pertaining to the second proposal?
There are no questions.
All right. Then the next order of business is to consider the advisory proposal to approve the company's executive compensation. And details of this proposal are set forth in the proxy statement. Barb, are there any questions or comments pertaining to the 3rd proposal?
There are no questions.
All right. Thank you. Then the next order of business is to consider the shareholder proposal on political contributions. So details of this proposal are set forth in the proxy statement. And at this time, operator, could you please bring in Mary Monette, who is Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Mercy Investment Services.
Good morning. I'm Mary Monette, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Mercy Investment seeking to establish greater accountability and transparency in our company's political spending. Mercy Investments, together with numerous other main stream investors, considers disclosure of political expenditures made with corporate funds and payments to 3rd party groups to be an important Board accountability issue and a standard in good governance. Public attention and scrutiny of corporate political contributions is growing even as the Federal Election Commission reports that outside groups spent $1,420,000,000 on political campaigns in the 2016 election cycle and $1,100,000,000 in the 2018 cycle. Many of these organizations do not disclose their donors and they often have strong ties to elected officials, leading to public perception that they are a means to buy influence and access.
Companies that engage in political spending face heightened risks from contributions to candidates or organizations that may conflict with core values and endanger their reputations, their relationship with consumers and employees and their bottom line. There is an effective solution to this reputational and economic risk and that is disclosure. Although our company offers a policy on corporate political spending on its website and discloses some of its spending, its disclosure does not provide enough assurance to investors that the risks of political spending are being carefully managed. Key information is missing from company disclosures, including contributions to state level political candidates and parties, 5 27 political committees and independent expenditure campaigns, as well as contributions that support and or oppose ballot measures and payments to nonprofit entities such as 501 4 groups that engage in political activity. It is virtually impossible to obtain a full accounting of corporate political spending from public sources.
The only way to get a full picture of our company's political contributions is for the company to disclose them. We are asking DTE to disclose a full picture of its corporate political spending so that investors and our Board can appropriately evaluate and mitigate potential risks. At a time when the trend among large companies, including DTE peer companies, is to be more open about their political spending and their policies, our company would benefit from greater disclosure. We urge support of proposal number 4. Thank you.
Well, thank you, Mary. And Barb, do we have any questions or comments pertaining to the 4th proposal?
There are no questions.
All right. Well, thank you. And this then concludes the business to come before the meeting. So the polls are now closed and the business meeting is adjourned. And next, Jerry Norcia and I will conduct a short question and answer session.
So if you wish to submit a question during the question and answer session, please click on the conversation icon located at the top of the welcome page for this meeting. And at this point, I am going to turn things over to Jerry Norcia, and he and I will be available to answer your questions as appropriate.
Thank you, Jerry. And at this point, I'll ask Barb if there are any questions.
Yes, Jerry. We do have a couple of questions. The first is a 2 part question. When will you stop generating with coal and how much of your generation is from coal right now?
That's a great question. We've been one of the leaders in the industry to announce our carbon reduction goals. And as you may have seen, we plan to reduce 80% of our carbon emissions by 2,040 and also be in a net zero position by 2,050, which is something that we're really proud of. And we were one of the first in the industry to make that move. We are also the largest renewables investor in the state of Michigan with over $2,000,000,000 invested in wind energy and solar energy, and we plan to continue that path to invest another $1,500,000,000 to $2,000,000,000 in renewables.
We plan to retire our coal plants in phases. The first phase is in 2022. And ultimately, by 2,040, we will have retired our last coal plant. But we will this will drive a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2,030, and as I mentioned, 80% by 2,040.
Great. And our final question is, how has COVID-nineteen affected the company's operations?
Well, the first thing that we did is that we made our employees safe during this pandemic, and we suspended all non essential work approximately 30 days ago, and that led to making our employees extremely safe. Obviously, we had to maintain essential services, such as gas service and electric service. So several 1,000 of our employees had to remain on the job, but we made sure that they were safe with proper protective equipment and also proper procedures. As we enter this week, we are starting to return to work gradually in an appropriate way to ensure that our employees and the public will remain safe with proper protective
Okay. Well, thank you then, Barb. And this concludes our question and answer session. And I will now ask Lisa Mushong, our Vice President and Secretary, to report on the preliminary voting results.
Thank you, Jerry. With regard to the election of directors, all of the nominees for director have been elected by a majority of votes cast until their terms expire or until their successors have been duly elected and qualified. With regard to the proposal to ratify the appointment by the Audit Committee of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2020, the tabulator reports that a majority of votes cast were in favor of the proposal and the appointment has been ratified. With regard to the advisory proposal to approve the company's executive compensation, the tabulator reports that a majority of votes cast were for the proposal. Therefore, the proposal has passed.
And finally, with regard to the shareholder proposal regarding political contributions, the tabulator reports that a majority of votes cast were against the proposal. Therefore, the shareholder proposal has not passed. That completes my report.
Well, thank you, Lisa. And with the report out of the results, we are now adjourned. Thank you very much for participating in our meeting this morning.