AGM 2020

May 7, 2020

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Brian Buckler, and I'm Vice President of Investor Relations for Duke Energy. Thank you for joining us by webcast or the toll free number we provided in advance. I'm pleased to welcome our shareholders from around the world. Today's meeting is being recorded and will be available through our website. Let's begin by reviewing today's agenda. In a moment, I'll introduce Lynn Good, our Chair, President and CEO to call the meeting to order and facilitate the business portion of the agenda. Lynn will also provide an update on the company, followed by a question and answer session. You may submit questions using the text box on the web portal. Today's discussion may include forward looking information and the use of non GAAP financial measures. You should refer to information contained in our 2019 Form 10 ks and subsequent filings concerning factors that could cause future results to differ from this forward looking information. For any non GAAP measures used, a reconciliation can be found on the Investors section of our website. Now, it is my pleasure to introduce Lynn Good. Brian, thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We're hosting this meeting online for the 4th straight year. So we're very experienced at providing this level of transparency and accountability that you expect from us, despite the current challenges that are presented by the coronavirus. Technology allows us to give our shareholders an opportunity to ask questions and fully participate in the governance of Duke Energy. Legal notice of this meeting has been duly given, a quorum is present, and the meeting is now lawfully convened for the transaction of business. You should see a vote button on your computer screen. The polls are now open and you can cast your ballot at any time. So again, let me welcome you to the meeting. With that, the meeting will please come to order. Like you, our directors are participating online along with our independent auditors, Deloitte and Touche. In addition, Broadridge Financial Solutions has been appointed to act as Inspector of Elections. Jan Castillo from Broadridge is participating and has taken the oath of Inspector of Elections. David Fountain is our Senior Vice President, Legal, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary. Today, he also acts as Secretary of this meeting. David will report the number of shares entitled to vote and the number of shares and votes represented in person or by proxy at this meeting. So David, let me turn it to you. Thank you, Lynn. As of the close of business on March 9, 2020, Duke Energy Corporation had outstanding and entitled to vote 734,000,000 28,600 and 20 shares of common stock, each of which is entitled to one vote. They are here represented by proxy 627,000,000 64,314 shares of the Corporation's common stock, which constitute 85.42 percent of the total shares entitled to vote at this meeting. The final reports of the Inspector of Election will include the votes, if any, of the shareholders voting through the web portal. Lynn, let me turn it back to you. David, thank you. We will now proceed with the matters to be voted on. The first management proposal is the election of the Board of Directors. We have a declassified Board, which means that all of the directors stand for election every year at the annual meeting. Our elections also require nominees to meeting. Our elections also require nominees to receive a majority vote rather than a plurality to be elected. These nominees, whose bios begin on Page 10 of the proxy statement, are presented for the purpose of voting for their election as directors. Michael Browning, Chairman of Browning Consolidated and our independent Lead Director Annette Clayton, President and CEO, North America Operations of Schneider Electric Ted Craver, Retired Chairman, President and CEO of Edison International Rob Davis, CFO and Executive Vice President, Global Services for Merck and Company Dan D'Amico, Chairman Emeritus, retired President and CEO of Nucor Corporation Nicholas Fanadakis, Retired Executive Vice President of DuPont Inc. John Herron, Retired President, CEO and Chief Nuclear Officer of Entergy Nuclear Bill Kennard, Co Founder and Non Executive Chairman of Velocitas Partners Marie McKee, Retired Senior Vice President of Corning, Inc. Maria Rose, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Cummins Incorporated Tom Skanes, Retired Chairman, President and CEO of Piedmont Natural Gas Company and Bill Webster, Retired Executive Vice President for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. They have been nominated for election of directors for 1 year terms expiring in 2021. I'd also like to pause for a moment and recognize Wick Mormon and Carlos Saladregas, who are stepping off the Board at the end of today's meeting. I'd like to thank them for their years of outstanding service to our company and wish them the very best. There are 2 additional management proposals being presented for approval. Proposal 2 is the ratification of Deloitte and Touche as Duke Energy's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020, as stated on Page 33 of the proxy statement. Proposal 3 is a vote on an advisory basis of our named executive officer compensation as disclosed on Page 35 of the proxy. And also to be presented are 4 proposals we received from shareholders. And I'm going to turn this over to David, who will introduce those proposals. Thank you, Lynn. I would like to remind shareholders that each of the proponents' statements are their own and do not represent the views of Duke Energy. We've asked each person to limit their comments to 3 minutes on the topic of their proposal. The 1st shareholder proposal, identified as Proposal 4 in the proxy statement beginning on Page 70, relates to a request for an independent Board Chair. Presenting on behalf of the proponent, the City of New York, Office of the Comptroller is Michael Garland, Assistant Comptroller for Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment in the Office of the Comptroller for the City of New York. Operator, please open Mr. Garland's line. Great. Thank you, David. Madam Chair, Board members and fellow share owners, I'm presenting proposal 4 on behalf of Comptroller Stringer and the New York City Pension Funds, which are substantial long term Duke Energy share owners with roughly 2,000,000 shares. Proposal calls for a Board policy requiring an independent Board Chair. Except for 2 transition periods, Duke CEOs have also chaired the Board since 1999. Our proposal is not a referendum on the current chair, but we are instead looking for a commitment upon a transition to a new CEO. We commend Duke for setting a target of net 0 emissions by 2,050 as well as for its recent commitment to renewable energy. In our view, these commitments underscore the need for independent board leadership and oversight, so that the company's growth and long term shareholder value will not be hampered by its failure to act more quickly and ambitiously to transition away from fossil fuels. According to a recent report by Synapse Energy Economics, Duke has not aligned its investment plans with its decarbonization targets, raising questions about the caliber of its capital allocation strategies. In its more recently released climate report, Duke reflects increased ambition on renewables, but still charts a course toward decarbonization that relies heavily on natural gas expansion, carbon offsets and unproven technologies, prompting the Energy and Policy Institute to conclude in an analysis published 2 days ago that Duke lags behind other utilities in both the speed and scale of its energy transition. While the onus is on management produce credible transition plans, it is the Board's responsibility to hold management accountable on behalf of the long term interest of the company and its shareowners. Independent Board leadership and oversight could be the turning point for Duke to navigate a lower carbon path toward its de carbonization goals. As an independent chair can provide a balance of power between the CEO and the Board, significantly directors on boards with a joint CEO chair report being more likely to have difficulty voicing a dissenting view according to a survey last year by PWC. In opposing our proposal, the Board points to its strong lead independent director. We have doubts, however, about the robust objective leadership that Director Michael Browning brings into the Board room. Mr. Browning has served as a Director of Duke or its predecessors for 30 years, far in excess of both the 14 years disclosed in Duke's proxy statement and the Board's own 15 year term limit policy. We share the concern expressed by the Council of Institutional Investors that extended periods of service may adversely impact the Director's ability to bring an objective perspective into the boardroom. We believe a truly independent director would be better positioned to address Duke's decarbonization misalignment. Therefore, we urge the Board and share owners to support a policy to acquire an Indian chair, independent share upon succession of the current CEO. Thank you. Thank you for your statement, Mr. Garland, and for your interest in Duke Energy. The next shareholder proposal identified as Proposal 5 beginning on Page 73 of the proxy statement relates to the elimination of super majority voting provisions in the company's certificate of incorporation. John Chvedden is the proponent. Operator, please open Mr. Chibetin's line so we can hear from him. Hello. This is John Chibetin. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can, Mr. Chabed. Proposal 5, a simple majority vote. Charles requests that our Board take each step necessary so that each voting requirement in our charter and bylaws that calls for a greater than simple majority vote be eliminated and replaced by requirement for a majority of the votes cast for and against proposals or a simple majority in compliance with the applicable laws. Joe's are willing to pay a premium for shares of companies that have excellent corporate governance. Super majority voting requirements on the other hand have been found to be one of 6 entrenching mechanisms that are negatively related to company performance according to What Matters in Corporate Governance by Lucian Bebchuk of the Harvard Law School. Super majority requirements are used to block initiatives supported by most shareholders, but opposed by status quo management. This proposal topic won from 74% to 88% support at Alcoa, Waste Management, Goldman Sachs, FirstEnergy and Macy's. This same proposal topic won more than 97% support at the 2018 Duke Annual Meeting, but it still needed a greater shareholder vote turnout to be approved. It is disingenuous It is disingenuous that management does not support this proposal. Management supported this exact proposal topic in 2017 2018, Post management claims it had a campaign to obtain the necessary votes in 2017 2018, but provides no details on its so called campaigns so that shareholders can make an informed decision on whether management made a serious effort under the circumstances. Management simply needed a greater shareholder turnout because 97% of the incoming votes were in favor of the 2018 management proposal on this very same topic. There should be an explanation on why management is so hapless in increasing the shareholder vote turnout at its annual meeting. At least management could have adjourned the 2018 annual meeting to obtain more votes, but management failed to do so. Currently a 1% minority can frustrate the will of our 79% shareholder majority in an election with 80% of shares casting ballots. In other words, a 1% minority could have the power to prevent shareholders from improving the governance of our company. This can be particularly important during periods of management underperformance or an economic downturn. Currently, the role of shareholders is minimized because management can simply ignore an overwhelming 79% vote of shareholders. The timing of this reform is right because it's taken 5 years for our stock to go from $70 to $80 in a mostly robust market. Plus our Lead Director, Michael Browning received the most negative votes of any Director in 2019 and our Chairman and CEO, Lynn Good received the 2nd most negative votes. Please vote yes. Civil majority vote proposal 5. Thank you, Mr. Chevedden for sharing that statement with us and for your interest in Duke Energy. There are 2 additional shareholder proposals. Each of the proponents elected to pre tape their statements. Proposal 6, beginning on Page 75 of the proxy statement, calls for a semi annual report on Duke Energy's political contributions and expenditures. Presenting on behalf of the proponent, the State of New York Office of the State Comptroller is their Co Director of Corporate Governance, Patrick Dougherty. Mr. Chairman, my name is Patrick Dougherty, and I'm here today on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund to present our funds resolution calling on Duke Energy to fully report on its political spending with corporate funds. As long term shareholders of Duke Energy, our fund supports policies that apply transparency and accountability to corporate political giving. In its view, such disclosure is fully consistent with public policy in regard to public company disclosures. Company executives exercise wide discretion over the use of corporate resources for political purposes. And Duke's current policy on political disclosure does not disclose direct contributions to candidates, parties and committees identifying recipients and the amount paid to each direct independent expenditures intended to influence electoral campaigns, payments made to influence the outcome of ballot measures, and payments made to 3rd party organizations, including those organized under Section 501(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that could be used for election related purposes. Therefore, our fund believes that a complete disclosure by the company is necessary for shareholders to be able to fully evaluate the political use of corporate assets. And therefore, on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, I submit the resolution of political disclosure found in your proxy materials. Thank you. The final shareholder proposal identified as proposal 7 beginning on Page 77 of the proxy statement relates to providing an annual report on Duke Energy's lobbying payments. Presenting on behalf of the proponents Mercy Investment Services, the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia and the Presbyterian Church USA is Mary Minette, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Mercy Investment Services Incorporated. Good day. I am Mary Minette, Director Duke Energy and our co filers, the Presbyterian Church USA and the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia, I hereby move proposal number 7, a proposal recommending that Duke Energy provide a detailed report of all state and federal lobbying expenditures, including expenditures that fund lobbying through trade associations, which actively lobby on issues that can affect our company's long term interests. This proposal is not asking our company to stop its participation in political or lobbying activities that serve our company's interests. Rather, it requests the company to provide sufficient information to shareholders to determine if corporate assets are being used to promote public policy objectives, which propose reputational or financial risks to our company. In September 2019, Duke Energy announced an industry leading goal of reaching net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2,050. As shareholders, we commend the company on its commitment to addressing the environmental impacts of company operations and on its transition to cleaner sources of energy. Our resolution asks the company to improve its disclosures on lobbying activities both direct and through trade associations to ensure that they are in alignment with that stated commitment. Duke Energy is a member of several trade associations whose position on climate change and climate policy do not align with its stated commitment to a low carbon future. For example, our company is a member of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. Both organizations have lobbied for many years against effective climate change regulations. In a positive development last spring, Duke Energy updated its policy to disclose on a semi annual basis the federal lobbying proportion of trade association dues in excess of $50,000 beginning with the report covering June through December 2018. Its most recent report for the period from January to June 2019 summarizes $889,040 in payments to 7 trade associations for lobbying activities. However, this new disclosure does not provide a complete picture of the significant dollars being spent by the company for federal lobbying, which exceeded $5,200,000 in 2019 according to a report from Open Secrets. The new policy also does not include lobbying payments to 501c4 organizations that undertake lobbying activities, such as the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, which has pursued the adoption of anti climate laws and regulations at the state level or the Consumer Energy Alliance, an industry funded nonprofit pushing for approval of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Duke Energy's financial support for the latter group has been criticized in the media in recent months. For these reasons, we urge all shareholders to vote for this proposal and urge Duke Energy to increase its disclosure of lobbying expenditures and to more fully address how it ensures that its lobbying dollars align with its commitment to a net zero future for the company. Thank you very much. Thank you. And thank you to all of our shareholders for sharing those statements with us. This concludes our presentation of the proposals before us here at the Annual Meeting. If you have not already voted your shares or if you'd like to change your vote, you may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. The polls will remain open for the next several minutes until the question and answer session begins. Now Lynn, let me turn it back over to you to provide a business update for our shareholders. David, thank you. And before I give a brief business update, I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about our response to COVID-nineteen, which I know is of great interest to our shareholders. This pandemic is unlike anything we've experienced and it's required us to dramatically adjust how we operate. Yet our purpose has never been more important. We provide an essential service, powering the lives of our customers and the vitality of our communities, no matter the circumstances. Like all of you, I want to extend my thanks to our healthcare workers, first responders and others on the front lines. They have been true heroes for how they've cared for those afflicted with the virus. As we continue to provide reliable power to support their efforts, we remain focused on serving our customers and taking care of our employees. We've taken significant steps to help keep our team safe, including implementing social distancing measures, performing enhanced cleaning, shifting 18,000 employees to work remotely, staggering staff and shifts and providing appropriate personal protective equipment. I'm proud to say that our company continues to maintain reliable electric and natural gas service. Yet we know how difficult the situation is for our customers and communities and we stand ready to help. We took steps early on to suspend disconnects and are waiving various fees for customers. And through the Duke Energy Foundation, we've provided $3,000,000 to support relief efforts. We will continue to look for ways to support our customers and communities as they recover from the economic impacts of the virus. In addition, we're monitoring the financial impact on our company. This meeting is occurring before our Q1 earnings release, so I cannot share current financial information, but I do encourage everyone to listen to our May 12 analyst call. While 2019 may seem like a distant memory now, I did want to share a business update because it was a very strong year for Duke Energy, and I'm proud of how our employees delivered incredible results. We continue to execute our strategy and make progress transforming how we operate while meeting our financial targets. Last year, we finished above the midpoint of our earnings guidance range fueled by strong growth in our electric, natural gas and commercial renewables businesses. We also took steps to strengthen our balance sheet to maintain our credit metrics and 2020 marks the 94th consecutive year we have paid a quarterly dividend. We remain focused on growing our dividend and delivering consistent financial results as we return value to you, our shareholders. Our long term strategy to deliver an outstanding customer experience by investing in our energy grid, cleaner energy and natural gas infrastructure continues to guide us. Starting with our customers, we made important improvements to provide the personalized service they expect, resulting in a 25% increase in our internal customer satisfaction metrics. We're also investing to provide better reliability by modernizing our grid. 80% of our customers have smart meters and our investments save customers approximately 62,000,000 outage minutes in 2019. And as we look ahead, our transition to lower carbon generating resources is important to our customers. And that's why we recently brought our Asheville combined cycle natural gas plant online, retired a coal plant and have more than 8,100 megawatts of wind, solar and biomass on our system, with plans to double that amount by 2025. We announced plans to renew plant licenses for our carbon free nuclear fleet, which accounts for nearly half of our generation in the Carolinas and supports our carbon reduction goals. And our investments in natural gas infrastructure, including our $300,000,000 Robison LNG facility and pipeline integrity projects continue to aid in our transition to a lower carbon future. Yet our performance is built upon our commitment to operational excellence. Last year, we maintained our industry leading safety results, while improving our reliability measures by 15%. In addition, I'm very proud of our progress to reduce carbon emissions. Since 2,005, we have reduced our carbon emissions 39%, 8% in 2019 alone. And in September, we refreshed our climate strategy and now plan to reduce our carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2,030 and achieve net 0 emissions by 2,050. We are taking a thoughtful disciplined approach to meeting these targets, collaborating with stakeholders in each of our states to turn these goals into reality. You can read more about our progress in our annual report as well as our recently released sustainability and climate reports. So as we look ahead, we plan to build on our success, staying focused on our mission to provide reliable, affordable and clean energy to our customers and to support the communities that we serve. And we are confident in our ability to respond and adapt just like we have done for more than a century. David, I'll close there with my remarks. I believe the polls are now closed. And I would ask you for the Inspector of Elections report before I answer questions. Thank you, Anne. Based on the proxies received, each nominee for Director has been elected by over 95% of the shares voted. Congratulations to each of our Directors and thank you for your service to Duke Energy. The ratification of Deloitte and Touche as Duke Energy's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020 has been approved with over 96% of the vote. The advisory vote on our named executive officer compensation has been approved with approximately 93% of the vote. Shareholder Proposal 4, seeking an independent Board Chair, has failed, receiving approximately 37% of the vote. Shareholder Proposal 5, seeking the elimination of the super majority voting provisions in Duke Energy's Certificate of Incorporation has passed, receiving approximately 86% of the vote. Shareholder Proposal 6, requesting a semi annual report on Duke Energy's political contributions and expenditures, has failed, receiving approximately 38% of the vote. Finally, shareholder proposal 7 seeking an annual report on Duke Energy's lobbying payments has failed, receiving approximately 42% of the vote. Lynn? Very good. Well, I think at this stage, the final reports of the Inspector of Election are ordered to be filed with the minutes of the meeting, and the meeting is now adjourned. So I'd like to answer some of your questions and Brian Butler, Head of Investor Relations is going to facilitate questions. So Brian, if I could turn it to you. Great. Thank you, Anne. And now we will move to the question and answer session. For the past several weeks, we've invited you, our shareholders, to submit questions and even more coming in during the meeting. We appreciate and value the level of engagement and interest from our shareholders. We know it's important that your voices are heard. So I'm going to read the questions as you submitted them. All the questions we received and answers will be posted to the Investors section of our website soon. So, Lynn, let's move to the first question. And again, I'm going to read it just as it was submitted. Since Duke Energy is an all inclusive corporation and considering the company made a monetary contribution to the Democratic National Commission in 2016, Will Duke Energy be making the same monetary contribution to the Republican National Convention in 2020? If not, could you explain the rationale? Thank you, Brian. As this question mentions, we do support many events to showcase the cities and the states in which we operate and give them an opportunity to be on the national stage. And the Republican National Convention will be a great headquarter city here in Charlotte, North Carolina. That's why we are a part of a large bipartisan group of community and business leaders supporting the 2020 Republican National Convention. When the Democratic National Convention was held in Charlotte in 20 12, it provided a huge economic boost, drawing more than 35,000 visitors and generating an economic impact of over $150,000,000 You can expect that as we continue to participate in this event that our contribution to the R and C will be commensurate with other large companies in Charlotte, And we hope that economic development continues to be a top priority, not only for our company, but for the regions in which we serve, particularly as we face a bit of an uncertain and challenging time. But given the current impact of the virus, we are monitoring the ongoing developments and we're working with the city and organizers as planning continues for the Republican National Convention. Thank you, Ed. Let's move to the next question, which is related to coal ash. Again, I'm going to read it just as it was submitted. Very disappointed that you chose to reward the CEO with an outrageous salary increase with the tax break by Trump rather than clean up coal ash ponds, then ask for a rate increase because you cannot afford to clean them up without it. You would not have done anything had it not been forced on you by the courts. Why? I cannot believe that you didn't have an engineer on staff who knew those bonds needed to be lined. You took a shortcut and got caught. Now you refuse to accept responsibility and want your customers to pay for it. I'm embarrassed to be a stockholder and don't know how to answer when I am asked why by friends who are your customers, so why? Well, Brian, there's a lot in that question and statement. And unfortunately, a number of things are inaccurate. So I welcome the opportunity to respond to the question and I'm just going to take them in order. I mean the first issue that was raised is the corporate tax cut. And I think it's really important for our share owners to understand that all of the benefit of the corporate tax cut will be and is being used to provide savings to our customers. It's being directly refunded and used to offset the impact on the price of electricity throughout all of our jurisdictions. Taxes are considered to be a part of our cost of service and therefore our customers are receiving the full benefit of the corporate tax cut. On the topic of our historic practices in managing coal ash, I also strongly disagree with the characterization of our operations. Duke Energy has always had safety as our very highest priority. We accept responsibility for our operations. We always have and we always will. And we managed our ash basins over decades in line with state and federal regulations and under very strict oversight of the states in which we operate. And I know this because I look not only at the companies that are Duke Energy today that have come together under mergers, but as I also understand the storage practices on the part of industry peers. And throughout that period, the environment remained well protected as a result of our operations. But the laws have changed, the regulations have changed, there are new regulations and we are experienced in our industry with new environmental regulations, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, now Coal Combustion Residuals. And we are responding to those regulations in a very deliberate, thoughtful and industry leading way. We have reached a settlement in the state of North Carolina reaching agreement with the regulators on the methods to be used to comply with these regulations, recognizing that the regulations themselves include a variety of options. We have to choose options that make sense to go forward and we've worked hard on that agreement coming together in a way that makes sense for North Carolina residents and businesses, the regulators, the environment and our company. And this agreement will save our customers $1,500,000,000 compared with the original order that we received from the state. So finally, on the question of who pays for basin closure, it's also important to recognize that the operation of our power plants, the construction, the operation, the retirement, the decommissioning, the closure of ash basins are all considered to be part of normal operations. And those costs will be closely reviewed as part of a very public process by the utility commissions who regulate our company, and it is those commissions who will determine if the investments have occurred been incurred in a prudent way and if they are appropriate for customers to pay for as part of the overall cost of the electric service we provide. So I'd like to close by saying, I am very proud of the work that Duke Energy has done. I'm very proud of our commitment to safety. I'm very proud of our industry leading approach and we will continue to operate our company a manner that projects people and the environment. Thank you, Len. So let's move to the next question. This question is related to the dividend. What are you doing to improve the company and raise the dividend? Brian, I appreciate that question because I know how important the dividend is to our shareholders. It's a stable source of income and one that they've counted on for a long time. I mentioned in my remarks that we have been paying a cash dividend for 94 consecutive years, which is a track record that we're particularly proud of. And focusing on growing our company is a priority. We have been doing a lot of work over a long period of time to position Duke as low risk regulated investment. And since 2013, those regulated utilities have grown at a compound growth rate of 5% and we have also worked on transitioning the portfolio of businesses that we own to continue to drive regulated returns. We exited our international operations in our Midwest merchant generation and added the Piedmont Natural Gas Business, which has been an extraordinary asset to our company and delivers consistent and very valuable growth. We also operate under a clear long term strategy that is focused on delivering value to customers and to shareholders, and we are investing in our energy delivery system and clean energy and natural gas infrastructure. So our focus remains on delivering a stable 8 to 10% total shareholder return, which includes low risk regulated growth as well as a growing dividend. And that's the commitment we have to our shareholders with a track record to demonstrate that commitment. So Lynn, we've had several questions come in yesterday and today, and a couple of the questions are on the climate front. So I'm going to read a couple of these longer questions and I'm going to do them back to back, so that you can address them together. They're fairly long questions, so just bear with me, I have to go through them. Wire appears of a similar size, planning to reach ambitious climate targets through much higher penetration levels of renewables and storage, while Duke claims such plans are not feasible. Given the considerable climate impacts of natural gas, in addition to other market and technological forces driving the need to reduce gas consumption, Wai is due continuing to plan further investments in gas assets. Given the high level of risk associated with whether or not the Atlantic Coast Pipeline should or will be built, would Duke consider pulling out of the project. Our company's 2020 climate report assumes substantial build out of fossil fuel assets in the next 10 years and continued reliance on natural gas plus as yet undeveloped 0 emitting load following resources to provide more than 1 third of electricity through 2,050. Given that these proposals are at odds with the economic advantages of solutions prioritizing renewables, storage and energy efficiency, what steps have independent members of the Board taken to independently verify management's proposed net zero pathways. Thank you, Brian. There are a number of questions in there, and I'd like to try to address renewables, natural gas, research and development and then the role of the Board. And as Brian indicated early on, we will also post complete answers to all of these questions on the portal following in the event that I overlook any element of the questions. I think, Brian, what strikes me about these questions is there's a lot of agreement between those posing the questions and the company and a lot of passion around the goal of reaching net 0 by 2,050. But what the questions are really exploring is what are the tactics that we ought to be using in order to achieve that objective. And I'd like to emphasize that at Duke Energy, we have a responsibility that some others in the conversation do not have. And that responsibility is to maintain reliability and to maintain affordability. And affordability is something that is on my mind front and center right now as we are challenged with the COVID nineteen event and the incredible impact that the price of electricity and electricity in general is having on our customers. And so I'd first like to talk about investment in renewables and commitment to carbon reduction because I believe what may be overlooked in this conversation is the extraordinary progress that the company has made. Our carbon emissions are down 39%. That 39% is well above pathway to the Paris Accords and well above a decade ahead of where the clean power plan under President Obama would have directed the industry. Renewables, we have 8,100 megawatts that we own or purchase with a commitment to double that by 2025. And if you look at our charts around 2,050, you will find over 55% of the capacity of Duke Energy being renewables and storage, another 10% being nuclear, carbon free energy. I also think it's important when you compare us to industry peers that I believe in this march to reduce carbon, there will be geographic differences. So as we sit in the Southeast, in the near term, the renewable that is available to us is storage. I'm talking about the Carolinas and Florida. We do not spend in an area with abundant wind like other utilities who may be operating more fully in the Midwest. And so having a mix of renewables to achieve more rapid reduction early in the period is often an opportunity presented to those who have very abundant wind resources. We also see the benefit of energy efficiency, and I'm proud to say that Duke Energy is a leader in energy efficiency, having been ranked 1st and second, Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress in the Southeast for our extraordinary commitment to energy efficiency, and that will not change. We'll continue to build on those results over the next 3 decades. When we talk about natural gas, we see natural gas as being an important part of achieving carbon reduction. And natural gas infrastructure in order to use natural gas in this way. And I am disappointed to learn that the tool of natural gas is under such assault because it's important as we continue to retire coal, as we continue to add more renewables and offer resource like natural gas to match that intermittency. And we do see that the role of natural gas over time will change from being a base load resource, which we're using it for today, to being more of a peaking resource, giving us the flexibility that we need to match load and to match demand. We, in our recent climate report actually explored with very complete modeling what it would look like if we pulled natural gas out of the picture. And there are some extraordinary statistics in the report that I would strongly encourage others to look at. If we pull natural gas out of the picture, our model says that by 2,030, we would need to install 15,000 megawatts of storage, which is a little over 17 times the amount of battery storage installed in the U. S. Today, all in our service territories. And this would represent an incremental cost to our customers 3 to 4 times above the plan that we have outlined with a more balanced set of resources. And I think more to learn on battery storage. We believe that more innovation is necessary around that technology for it to realize its full potential over the next 3 decades. And that leads me to the concept of research and development. This notion that we include in our climate report about load following 0 emitting resources. We believe that there will continue to be innovation and we will encourage and advocate for it because we believe that more solutions need to be developed in order to get to the net zero goal. This is where carbon capture, advanced nuclear, hydrogen, longer lived battery storage is necessary to achieve the goal that we all seek. And we put that forward again based on very detailed modeling and the unique responsibility that we have around reliability and affordability. And finally, the role of the Board, our Corporate Governance Committee composed entirely of independent members of the Board is responsible for oversight not only on climate, but on sustainability in general. We frequently bring in outside speakers, experts and organizations to discuss climate change, to discuss modeling and other techniques and to talk about this very important conversation and how the company should be mitigating risk. So this is a front and center discussion for us. Our commitment is to be transparent. We share the goal of net 0 by 2,050, but also recognize that a balanced set of solutions are going to be necessary. There is no silver bullet to this. It cannot be solved in the next 6 months. And our commitment is to continue to make progress for our customers, our communities and for our shareholders. Thank you, Ann. And I know as an employee, not speaking for a lot of employees, how excited we are to be going on this path of our carbon reduction goals. It's an exciting time at the company. So Lynn, let's go on to our next question. This one is on grid security and it's a question we've received in the past. Is Duke Energy addressing the issue of hardening all systems to ensure adequate protection from an EMP event for a solar CME? Yes, Brian. Those questions are really highlighting the importance of protecting the electric system from events that could occur. And I would say to you, as I look at the investment priorities of Duke Energy, investment in modernizing our grid, which investment priorities. And the investments that we're making are intended to address a range of potential issues from hurricanes to severe storms, including E and Ps, and even the potential impact of the CME. So we take all of this very seriously. And I would go on to say that in addition to hardening and resiliency, we see investment in the energy delivery system is also enabling the renewables I just spoke about and also enabling solutions for our customers who are counting on that delivery system for their needs as well. So we see investment in the energy delivery system as a high priority. We are pursuing it in absolutely every jurisdiction in which we operate and are making good progress across our system. Great. So let's move to our next question, and it's related to the company's response to COVID-nineteen. What percent of employees can do most of their work at home? That's a good question. I mentioned in my remarks 18,000. So of Duke Energy employees, it's over 60%. And the way we approach this was to evaluate whether an employee's work could be accomplished remotely, and if so, we enabled it. And real credit to our technology team, our cyber team for the work that they did to move employees to remote locations very quickly. We have also moved our call center specialists there as well and other important role and organization to support our customers. And so that is in place and has been in place since mid March and we'll be very thoughtful and deliberate about a return to work for Duke Energy, which we see is playing out over multi month. We are also evaluating, any revisions to our remote work policies as a result of what we've learned in this event. Very good. So our next question is addressed to a degree within our proxy statement, as it relates to the shareholder proposals. And the question is, please explain why the Board recommends against reporting on Duke Energy's political contributions, expenditures and lobbying payments to the shareholders. Brian, the position of the Board and the company is that we do provide numerous disclosures around these very issues, political expenditures, policies and procedures. We recognize and believe it is very important for our company to be involved in public policy. Just this conversation we've had today, climate is front and center, renewables are front and center. There are a variety of reasons why we need to be a part of the dialogue on behalf of our customers and on behalf of our shareholders. We adhere to the highest standards of ethics in all of our government affairs. We have significant management and Board oversight and approvals necessary before expenditures are made in these areas. And for several years, we have provided a political expenditure report, which we post to our website twice a year. And beginning with the report in the second half of twenty eighteen, we've expanded our disclosures. All contributions, which include contributions to candidates and parties made during the period, all trade associations, the portion of their fees attributable to lobbying that exceeded $50,000 and also contributions from our PAC. So we believe this information provides a great deal of transparency to shareholders on Duke Energy's involvement. And of course, if there are ever questions on those disclosures, our Investor Relations team is available to answer them. Very good. So Lynn, this is the last question we have time for today, and it relates to stock splits. Has the company ever considered a stock split to make it easier and more economic for the average person to invest in the company? I appreciate that question, because I've had it a number of times and we certainly monitor does it make sense to split. It was actually a few years ago that we did a reverse split. And so we're not evaluating it right now. I think at $80 $90 it's still a very affordable price. And we appreciate the investment that our shareholders make in Duke Energy and are satisfied at this point. But I won't take it off the table. We may consider it at some point in the future. Great. Thank you so much, Lynn. I'll leave it to you to wrap up the call now. Well, Brian and David and all of our shareholders who have participated today, I want to thank you for your interest and for your investment in Duke Energy. As we've said a couple of times, we will post your questions and answers to the Investors section of the Duke Energy website under today's date. And I want to thank you again for enjoying us. I want you to stay safe and well in this environment and hope you have a very good afternoon. Thanks again.