Duke Energy Corporation (DUK)

AGM 2015

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May 7, 2015

Welcome to the Duke Energy 2015 Annual Shareholders Meeting. My name is Bill Curranz, and I'm Vice President of Investor Relations for Duke Energy. We are broadcasting this annual meeting by teleconference and webcast and I also welcome everyone online and on the phone. We began meetings at Duke Energy with a safety message, because safety is our top priority. So please pay attention to how we exit this building safely in the unlikely event of an emergency. The primary emergency exits from this auditorium are the doors behind this stage to your right. In the event of emergency, those in both the auditorium and the atrium should remain seated until directed by security personnel to the appropriate exits. If anyone needs assistance, security and safety personnel will be available to help you. If we do have to evacuate, auditorium this morning, you should have received a copy of the meeting program. If you did not, please raise your hand and we will bring one to you. The conduct of meeting procedures inside of the program. Please be sure at this time that all electronic devices are turned off. Now, let me quickly review the items on this morning's program. In a moment, I will introduce our Chairman of the Board, Anne Maynard Gray, who will call the meeting to order. After taking care of certain procedural matters, Anne will introduce Duke Energy's Board of Directors and senior management. We will then move to the business portion of the agenda, which includes several items, including the election of directors, 3 management proposals and 3 shareholder proposals. Lynn Good, our Vice Chairman, President and CEO will provide a report on the company and lead a question and answer session. As we begin, let me inform you that today's discussion will include forward looking information and the use of non GAAP financial measures. You should refer to information contained in our SEC filings concerning factors that could cause future results to differ from this forward looking information. A reconciliation of non GAAP financial measures can be found on the Investor Relations Web site at www.duke energy.com. Now it is my pleasure to introduce our Chairman of the Board, Anne Maynard Gray. Thank you, Bill. The meeting will please come to order. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2015 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. In accordance with Delaware General Corporate Law, I appoint Nancy Wright, Associate General Counsel here at Duke Energy and Sid Rodrigue of Broadridge Investor Communications Solutions, our proxy tabulator to act as inspectors of of Our Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Julie Janssen also acting as secretary of this meeting will now report the number of shares As of the close of business on March 9, 2015, Duke Energy Corporation had outstanding and entitled to vote 708,000,000 16,491 shares of common stock each of which is entitled to one vote. There are here represented by proxy 595,437,000,120 6 shares of the corporation's common stock, which constitute 84.09% of the total shares entitled to vote at this meeting. The final reports of the Inspector of Elections will include the votes if any of the shareholders present and voting in person. Thank you, Julie. 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. First, I would like to introduce the members of your Board of Directors, all of whom are here with us today. As I introduce each of them, I will ask them to stand and be recognized. Alex Bernhardt, Chairman of Bernhardt Furniture Company Michael Browning, Chairman of Browning Consolidated Harris Deloge, Executive Chairman of Sunoco Products Company Dan D'Amico, Chairman Emeritus, Retired President and CEO of Nucor Corporation John Forsgren, Retired Vice Chairman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Northeast Utilities Lynn Good, our Vice Chairman, President and CEO Jim Hance, Retired Vice Chairman, Chief Financial Officer of Bank of America Corporation John Herron, Retired President, CEO and Chief Nuclear Officer of Intergy Nuclear Jim Heiler, Managing Director of Moorhead Capital Management Bill Kennard, Non Executive Chairman of Velocitas Partners Marie McKee, Retired Senior Vice President, Corning Incorporated Richard Meserve, President, Emeritus, Carnegie Institution For Science Jim Wrench, Retired Senior Vice President and Partner of Bechtel Group and Past President of Bechtel Nuclear Jim Rhodes, Retired Chairman, President and CEO of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and Carlos Saladriguez, Chairman of Regis HR Group and Chairman of Concordia Healthcare Holdings. Mr. Bernhardt and Mr. Wrench are retiring as Directors at the end of today's meeting as per our normal retirement policy and corporate governance principles. I would like to thank them for their many years of outstanding service to the company. Also seated in the first few rows are members of your management team. I hope that you had the chance to meet them on your way in. If not, I encourage you to do so after this meeting. As I introduce each of them, I will ask them to stand and be recognized. Melissa Anderson, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Thea Jamil, Executive Vice President and President, Regulated Generation Julie Jansen, our Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, who was previously introduced Mark Manley, Executive Vice President and President, Commercial Portfolio A. R. Mullinax, Executive Vice President, Strategic Services Keith Trent, Executive Vice President, Grid Solutions and President, Midwest and Florida Regions Jennifer Weber, Executive Vice President, External Affairs and Strategic Policy Lloyd Yates, Executive Vice President, Market Solutions and President, Carolina Region Steve Young, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I want to express my personal appreciation to the directors and the management team for their commitment to the company and to you our investors. I also would like to introduce Darren Myers from our Corporate Security Department who is serving as Sergeant at Arms. Finally, I would like you to meet Tom Eichelberger and Sean Byrd of Deloitte and Touche, the company's independent public accountant. We will now proceed with the matters to be voted on. We have a declassified Board of Directors, which means that all the directors stand for election every year at annual meeting. Our elections also require nominees to receive a majority vote rather than plurality to be elected. The Board of Directors has nominated directors Browning, Deloach, Rhodes, Solidrigas and myself. They have been nominated for election as directors for 1 year terms expiring in 2016. These nominees whose bios begin on page 12 of the proxy statement are presented for the purpose of voting for their election as directors. The selection of Deloitte and Touche as the company's independent public accountant for 2015 as stated on page 34 of the proxy statement is also hereby presented for the purpose of ratification. A vote on advisory basis of our named executive officer compensation as disclosed on page 36 of the proxy statement is hereby presented for approval. Duke Energy Corporation 2015 long term incentive plan as disclosed on page 65 of the proxy statement is hereby presented for approval. Also to be presented are 3 proposals we have received from our shareholders. The first regarding limitation of accelerated executive pay, the second regarding political contribution disclosure and the third regarding proxy access. I would like to ask Julie Janssen to introduce these three proposals. This year, we received 3 proposals from shareholders to be submitted for vote at the meeting. Because the vast majority of shareholders have already voted on these matters, we'd ask that you hold any questions you may have on these proposals until the question and answer portion of our meeting. This will allow us to get to that question and answer session sooner and allow more time to take more questions during that period. The 3 shareholder proponents who will now be given an opportunity to present his or her proposal and a brief supporting statement. I would like to remind those presenting that your remarks should be limited to the proposal. The first shareholder proposal relates to limitation of accelerated executive pay as stated beginning on page 72 of our proxy statement. The Board of Directors has recommended a vote against this proposal in part because it limits the company's ability to design an effective and competitive equity compensation program that serves the best interest of Duke and its shareholders. Here to present this proposal on behalf of the proponent John Chiveden is Ms. Carly Foster. Would you please meet with a volunteer with a microphone in the aisle to present the proposal? Good morning. This is Proposal 5, Limited Accelerated Executive Pay, sponsored by John Chevedden of Redondo Beach, California. Resolved, shareholders ask our Board of Directors to adopt a policy that in the event of a change in control as defined under any applicable employment agreement, equity incentive plan or other plan. There shall be no acceleration of vesting of any equity award granted to any senior executive provided, however, that our Board's executive pay committee may provide in an applicable grant or purchase agreement that any unvested award will vest on a partial pro rata basis up to the time of the senior executive's termination with such qualifications for an award as the committee may determine. For purposes of this policy, equity award means an award granted under an equity incentive plan as defined in Item 402 of the SEC's Regulation S K, which addresses executive pay. This resolution shall be implemented so as not affect any contractual rights in existence on the date this proposal is adopted. Divesting of equity pay over a period of time is intended to promote long term improvements and performance. The link between the executive pay and long term performance can be broken if such pay is made on an Accelerated equity vesting allows executives to realize pay opportunities without necessarily having earned them through strong performance. Please vote to protect shareholder value. Limit accelerated executive pay proposal 5. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Foster. The 2nd shareholder proposal relates to political contribution disclosure as stated beginning on page 75 of the proxy statement. The Board of Directors recommended a vote against this proposal because the company already provides links to much of the requested data on its website. Also the company in response to a similar proposal received last year and after discussions with shareholders over the last year has made a number of changes to its political expenditure program designed to enhance its governance and oversight over political expenditures. Here to present this proposal on behalf of the proponent, the Nathan Cummings Foundation is Michelle Folger Taylor. Ms. Folger Taylor, would you please meet a volunteer with a microphone in the aisle to present the proposal? Number 6, on behalf of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the proposal seeks to establish great accountability and transparency in our company's political spending. The sponsors of this proposal together with numerous other mainstream investors consider disclosure of political expenditures made with corporate funds and payments to 3rd party groups to be an important Board accountability issue and an essential aspect of good corporate governance. As you know, public attention and scrutiny of corporate political contributions have reached a new level of intensity in this spent almost $582,000,000 in political campaigns. Spent almost $582,000,000 in political campaigns, dollars 272,000,000 more than was spent in 2010 midterm cycle. Dark Money Organization, which concealed their donors, spent $194,000,000 in 2014 cycle, easily topping $134,000,000 in these groups spent in 2010 midterms. An article from the Conference Board review noted the rise of dark money spending and the new threat of extortion by some of these groups. The article said these groups are run by political operatives who have close ties with elected officials who will very likely share with them how companies are responding to requests for contributions. Companies now find themselves in newly risky A recent survey of business executives confirmed this idea. According to 2013 poll from the Committee of Economic Development, about 85% of business executives believe that the campaign finance system is in poor shape or broken. 90% supported reforms that disclose all individual corporate and labor contributions to political organizations and 89% wanted limits on how much money individuals, corporations and labor can give to political candidates. There is an effective solution to this lack of accountability and this is disclosure. The Supreme Court Justice, Anthony Kennedy supported this idea in his remarks on the Citizens United case. Through disclosure, he said, shareholders can determine whether their corporation's political speech advances the corporation's interest in making profits and citizens can see whether elected officials are in the pockets of so called moneyed interests. We acknowledge that Duke Energy has committed to provide limited disclosure, including the aggregate amount of corporate contributions on its website. However, this information is not responsive to the request made in our proposal. Requests which were last year supported by more than 42% of shares voted. The proposal specifically requests that identity of the recipients and the amount paid to each be disclosed. Aggregate spending amounts tell us nothing about where the money is going. We are asking Duke Energy to disclose all of spending so that shareholders and our Board can appropriately evaluate and mitigate any risks associated with this spending. Only full and complete disclosure including information on the identity of recipients and the amount paid to each can bring our company into line with corporate's best practice. Thanks. Thank you. The 3rd shareholder proposal relates to proxy access as stated beginning on page 77 of the proxy statement. The Board of Directors has recommended a vote against this proposal because among other reasons it could result in expense, distraction and abuse by special interest groups to promote an agenda that is not in the best interest of all shareholders while using company resources to do so. Ms. Folger Taylor will also present this proposal on behalf of the proponent, the New York City Employees Retirement System and Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds. Ms. Folger Taylor, would you please present this proposal? Thank you. I'm here from the New York City Comptroller, John excuse me, Scott Stringer and I'm here to present Proposal 7 on behalf of the trustees of the New York City 5 Pension Funds. The New York City Pension Funds are substantial long term holders of Duke Energy Shares of 1,000,000 443,813 shares. Proposal 7 calls for a proxy access by law to enable shareholders that have collectively held at least 3% of Duke Energy for 3 years to include a limited number of director candidates of management proxy cards. The proposal by law is designed to give substantial long term shareholders a meaningful voice in nominating and electing directors. Duke Energy received the proposal due to concerns with the composition of its Board as well as the exposure to risks related to climate change. As Lourdes Brown, the former CEO of BP warned in a speech last year, extractive industries need to take climate change more seriously or face substantial threat to their business. This requires directors who are independent, accountable and have a diverse mix of relevant skills, experience and perspective. While Duke Energy received the proposal due to specific concerns, we believe proxy access is a fundamental right that should be in place at all companies regardless of governance, industry or performance. Absent meaningful proxy access, the director election process simply becomes a wide has a potential to raise U. S. Market capitalization by as much as $140,000,000,000 The report also found that in other markets around the world where proxy access is allowed, it is used infrequently and with little disruption. The proposed by law includes appropriate safeguards to prevent abuse, including reasonable ownership and holding period requirements. It also includes a 25% limit on shareholders nominees to ensure that it will not facilitate a disruptive change of control. Finally and most importantly, any shareholder nominees would have to have Gartner Board Share Owner Support before he or she can join the Board. We did not select the proposed terms arbitrarily. It was the SEC filing extensive analysis and public comment that determined the 3% ownership threshold and other terms were appropriate. This year, a growing number of companies in various industries and in various sides has agreed to voluntarily adopt proxy access for shareholders that have collectively held 3% for 3 years. Recent examples include and Feige, Bank of America, Big Lots, First Married, General Electric, Prudential Financial, Staple, Wendy's, Wyden Petroleum and Yum! Brands. In response to shareholders' engagement, the Board of these companies have demonstrated their commitment to an accountable system of corporate governance and foster long term value creation. I urge Duke Energy and its Board and shareholders to support POLSA 7. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Folger Taylor. That concludes our presentation of the proposals before us at the Annual Meeting. If you have not previously voted your shares or you'd like to change your vote, a vote by ballot will now be taken for each of these items. Shareholders, the polls are now open. If you want to vote and need a ballot, please raise your hand. The polls will close in just a few minutes. After you've completed your ballot, please raise your hand again so we can collect it. The polls are now closed. If you've not yet returned your ballot, please raise your hand, so we may collect it now. I will now ask Julie Janssen for the Inspectors of Election report. Thank you, Anne. Based on the proxies received, 1st, each nominee for director has been elected by over 88% of the shares voted. 2nd, the ratification of Deloitte and Touche as the company's independent public accountant for 2015 has been approved with 97.59 percent of the vote. 3rd, the advisory vote on our named executive officer compensation has been approved with 81.01 percent of the vote. 4th, the Duke Energy Corporation 2015 long term incentive plan has been approved with 93.02 percent of the vote. 5th, the shareholder proposal relating to limitation of accelerated contribution disclosure has failed with 23.26 percent of the vote. Finally, the shareholder proposal relating to proxy access has been approved with 61.71 percent of the vote. Thank you, Julie. The final reports of the inspectors of election are ordered to be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The meeting is adjourned. And now I have the pleasure of introducing our Vice Chairman, President and CEO, Lynn Good for a business report and question and answer session. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2015 Annual Meeting of Duke Energy. I wanted to take just a moment and recognize my favorite shareholder today who is Brian Good. He and I will be married 33 years this year. In addition to being a great husband, he's a confidant and supporter and fiercely loyal to me and to Duke Energy. So I'm delighted to have him in the audience today. So this is my 2nd annual meeting, and I'm really excited to have an opportunity to provide you with an update on what's going on at Duke. But the legacy of Duke Energy is a legacy of over 100 years. And it's always such a pleasure at these meetings because I have an opportunity to visit with retirees who have been such an important part of the legacy of this company. And over the 2 years that I have been in my role, I've had an opportunity to learn a lot about the history of this company. It's an extraordinary legacy. Starting around the beginning of the 1900s, James Buchanan Duke, William States Lee and Doctor. Gil Wylie worked very hard to harness the power of the Catawba River and brought hydropower to this region and developed the 1st interconnected electric system to bring the textile industry to the Carolinas. And that story of innovation and courage that they demonstrated over 100 years ago is really a part of the legacy of this generation and renewables, I believe it's an extraordinary heritage and a steadfast commitment to the state and this community. I would call it a story of innovation. I'd call it a story of courage. I would call it a story of community commitment and also a commitment to economic development, all of which make this region just an extraordinary place to be. So on behalf of the 28,000 employees of Duke Energy, I'd like to give you a brief update on 2014. It's a year that I would call a year of great challenge and a year of great opportunity. And I'd like to share with you some of the 2014 by the numbers. I'd also like to share with you progress on ash management. And then finally progress on the future and how we at Duke Energy are preparing for the future of the company. And so by the numbers. Let's start with some financial statistics that as shareholders I know all of you are very focused on. Total shareholder return for 2014 was 26%. We paid a dividend for the 88th consecutive year. And we continue to have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry. And in fact, our balance sheet was upgraded by S and P in early 2015. In addition, we successfully completed the sale of our Midwest generation business, a set of assets that have been a part of the company for a long while, but strategically we thought it was important to move away from that business and deliver $2,800,000,000 of proceeds and have the opportunity to return some of those proceeds to shareholders. And so those numbers, I know resonate deeply with shareholders. But I would also say those are numbers that are important to customers as well, because there is a natural marriage in this industry between a financially strong company and a company that is positioned to serve customers, so that we can afford the investments that are necessary, so that our financing costs are the lowest possible to ensure that our rates are still competitive. And in this industry, the numbers also move to reliability and they also move to commitment to community. And so if I take the lens back in 20 14 and talk about how we performed on reliability, it was another year of great test for us in meeting the commitments to our customers. We talked last year at this time about something called the polar vortex. We now name cold weather. So that was in the winter of 2014, but we experienced equally cold weather in 2015. On February 20 this year, the demand for power in the Carolinas Eastern part of the state was actually 7% greater than it was in 2013. And I am so proud of the way the team at Duke worked to ensure that we have reliable power for all of our customers who count on us in that extraordinary time. It takes collaboration and hard work to make that happen from generation to transmission to distribution to customer service, so that we are there and you can count on us for reliability. We also had winter storms. Thanks to the teammates who work in all forms of weather all times of day, 20 fourseven to return power and we had a very good track record on reliability over the course of the year. We also continue to focus on energy efficiency. Every customer that I talk to is interested in how they can save money on energy efficiency. And I've looked at a few statistics just to give you a sense of how successful we have been in driving energy 60,000,000 CFL light bulbs, which is kind of an extraordinary number. We have also since 2009 saved our customers 6 $50,000,000 on their utility bills, the equivalent of the power for 440 1,000 homes. And we continue to place a high priority on bringing efficient electricity into our communities and we know how important that is to our customers. Energy assistance is also important to low income, fixed income senior citizens and we continue to support those programs so that when the energy bills are high due to weather or other circumstances that we provide support to the members of our community who need it the most. And then finally, by the numbers, the community outreach for Duke has been extraordinary this year. Between our foundation, our corporate contributions, our employees, our retirees and our volunteer hours, we donated $73,000,000 throughout all of our jurisdictions and communities. And we do that because it makes sense. This is our home as well and we want our communities to thrive and we are delighted to be a part of this community and provide support to the projects and programs that are so important to community vitality. So when I think of 2014 by the numbers, I think by any measure financially and for customers, it's been a very successful year and really our honor to serve the customers that count on us every day. So let me transition and talk a little bit about And I shared with you the heart of the company at that time, how we worked tirelessly to solve that issue, to repair the pipe, to clean the river and to move forward raising standards throughout our company. And we've had a dedicated team who has worked the entire year, thousands of hours. You'll have an opportunity to meet some of them in the atrium and the extraordinary work that has gone on is really something that I'm very proud of. And I wanted to share with you a few of the highlights on what we've accomplished this year on that important matter. We've had independent engineering reviews completed throughout our systems, not only here in the Carolinas, but throughout all jurisdictions, not only to confirm the safety of the operations, but also to begin our preparation for closure of these basins. We have also implemented fundamental changes to our organization. We have a centralized team of employees who are dedicated solely to the safe management of ASH every day and a dedicated team focused solely on closing those basins as rapidly as we can, monitoring, reporting and continuing to raise standards and expectations of excellence that I know all of you count on. We've also engaged a panel of national experts, environmental scientists, civil engineers, groundwater specialists and those who focus on hydrology and other matters to inform us to aid us in developing industry leading solutions and that work continues. And then we've done just old fashioned planning, engineering and planning, excavation plans, closure plans, finding sites where if we are going to excavate the ash, the ash can be stored. And we also have permits pending for all of our sites. And it sounds like a small thing, but I would say to you, we cannot move 1 ton of ash without a permit from the states that we operate in. And so the permits are extraordinarily important and we've worked hard to put them together. And of course, we are moving Ash. We are moving Ash at Asheville to a structural fill opportunity at the Asheville Airport. It's been a great collaboration and partnership with that community. And by the end of this month, we'll also be excavating ash at our W. S. Lee Station in South Carolina. Another highlight on the matter of ash and coal products, the EPA issued federal rules that were finalized in April of this year. And we have completed a site by site analysis of what work we need to do not only in North Carolina, but all of our jurisdictions to be responsive to these new regulations. And there will be more to come on how we will recommend based on the work that we've done in each site to move forward on the remaining basins around our system. So by all measures, I'm very proud of how we have worked and we will continue to work. We have learned so much from this event and we will use it to continue to deliver what we believe is the highest standard of operation throughout our company. Environmental stewardship is often linked with ash and ash management at Duke. But I would say to you the environmental stewardship story is much broader than that. We take our responsibility very seriously. And I would encourage you if you have an opportunity to stop at the sustainability information table, there's a great book. It looks like this. It is a very transparent and candid discussion of a broad range of activities at Duke and how we think about sustainability. I think it would be a good opportunity for you to get the facts around So thank you. A lot of passionate feelings about solar and I appreciate those and respect them. And let me transition to the future, because I think solar is certainly a part of that. And as I think about the future of Duke Energy, it's an exciting time to be in the energy industry. And we in 2014 announced about $8,000,000,000 of investments in areas where we believe the future lies. Investments in natural gas, not only natural gas generation, but a pipeline that will provide the infrastructure for the state in order to move forward and also investments in renewables. We invested $5,000,000 $500,000,000 in solar in North Carolina announcing that in 20 14. And this company has invested $4,000,000,000 in renewables dating back to 2,007. And we were recently recognized 3rd behind California and Arizona in solar installations in 2014. And the cumulative solar installed in North Carolina is ranked 3rd by some who are tallying that and 4th by others. And that's the direct result of the work of Duke Energy to bring that important resource into the portfolio that we believe will be important for the future. And then finally, we're investing in the grid. We believe the grid is an asset that's going to be of extraordinary importance into the future as we continue to innovate, whether it's natural gas or renewables or other forms of generation. The grid needs to be resilient and it needs to be able to accommodate all of these new technologies. And we were recognized in that area as well. A publication called Green Tech Media identified 20 innovators on grid and grid investment and Duke Energy was one of them. And I'm proud of the research and work that we're doing in that area. So thank you so much for your interest in Duke Energy for your investments. Energy future. So at this point, we're going to transition to questions and I'd love to invite Tim Pettit, who's a member of our Corporate Communications team to talk about how we're going to conduct Q and A. This is the spirit of allowing as many shareholders as possible to share their perspective. And so, Tim, let me turn it over to you. Thank you, Lynn. In the interest of all attending shareholders today as a courtesy to them, we'd like to ask each person to please limit your questions and comments to a maximum of 2 minutes. In order to assist you, there will be a countdown clock that will appear on the screen behind me. As you arrive today, you're each given the opportunity to request a number if you had an interest in asking a question in today's meeting. Is there anyone here that would like to ask a question, but does not currently have a number? If you would raise your hand please, our attendants will bring one to you. Anyone else? All right. As we call your number, if you would please proceed to the nearest aisle, Paige Sheehan or I will meet you with the microphone. At that time, if you would state your name for the record and if you're serving as the proxy for someone, if you would also state that shareholder's name for the record as well. Also, if your question has already been asked, we'd ask that you please consider deferring your time to others in the room. With that, who has number 1? Thank you. My name is David Pesik. I'm from Charlotte. My question is not about rooftop solar. It's about corruption. Since our last shareholders meeting, former Democratic Charlotte City Council Member and Mayor, Patrick Cannon has been sentenced to prison for corruption. He joins a long list of corrupt Democrats in prison, including the former Democratic mayors of Detroit and New Orleans, 2 Democratic governors of Illinois, Jesse Jackson Jr. To name a few. And then there's Hillary, the Clinton Foundation and her impeached and disbarred husband. Now when former Duke CEO, Jim Rogers, your predecessor, foolishly decided to lend $10,000,000 to bring this corrupt party's national convention to Charlotte unsecured. Were there no adults on Duke's Board of Directors to prevent Duke from damaging its brand by associating itself with corruption? Or did the Board of Directors drink the Kool Aid and agree with making this foolish and damaging loan? How could the Board agree to Mr. Rogers to to recover this $10,000,000 Or are you afraid that litigating this bad loan in the usual matter would reveal that it was merely a thinly disguised payoff to the corrupt Democratic mayor for extortion and influence peddling. And Mr. Rogers and some of you on the Board would be indicted for bribery. I as one damaged shareholder want my money back and I want it litigated and any collusion by Duke with Patrick Cannon's extortion and influence peddling exposed Or are you hiding something? Well, thank you for that question. There was a lot in there about the Democratic Party. Let me just comment for a moment about the convention. That was certainly an objective of the City of Charlotte to bring the convention as part of a broader economic development initiative and Duke was a part of that. I appreciate your sentiment and strong feelings about it. And I'm just going to leave the answer at that if I could. Thank you for being an investor in Duke Energy. We continue to work very hard every day to deliver the strongest returns that we can to our shareholders. So thank you for being here. Number 2? Okay. How about number 3? Good morning. My name is John Hennett. I'm from Wilson, North Carolina. I'm a retired science teacher. I have over 1300 shares. I've had it for over 50 years. Duke I call it Duke Power and CP and L, Carolina Power and Light. This morning USA Today reported that the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide last month was the highest since human civilization and it's at approximately 401 parts per million. At what level will Duke take faster action to switch to renewals? When will Duke support 3rd party residential rooftop solar? Why is Duke Energy not supporting net metering? And when is Duke Energy going to use the abundant wind resources off the coast? Thank you. Thank you. And thanks for being a shareholder of Duke Energy. I think our record on greenhouse gases and carbon as well as renewables is clear. Our carbon emissions are down over 20% from 2,005 and we continue to innovate around our generation portfolio. We have closed half of our coal plants in North Carolina. And as I mentioned in my remarks, we have invested in solar in this state bringing us to 3rd in the nation behind California and Arizona, which I think is an extraordinary track record and one that demonstrates our commitment to renewable energy. And so I welcome and appreciate your comments and your sentiments and we will continue to work at finding the right balance between reliability and affordability and environment. That's our job at Duke Energy. We take it very seriously. Shareholder with number 4, please identify yourself. Number 4? Okay. Number 5, please? My name is Charles Ray. This is my first corporate meeting at Duke. My father has been coming here for many years with me. I represent over 1400 shares. First off, I wanted to say it was a pleasure seeing you on the 60 Minutes interview Ms. Goode. Thank you. I thought it showed your understanding of the problem. It showed Bea that you have a great intellect and I appreciate that. And I thought it took a little courage. And on behalf of the shareholders, thank you very much for doing that. That's kind of you to say. Thank you. I've been to a few other meetings and some of these meetings by the way the staff are held at resorts like Callaway Gardens. Southern Company has that. So you can consider that next time if you want to choose a meeting place. I haven't seen as many police officers until recently I went to a jail. But of course I didn't know about all this other stuff. Okay. My shareholder question though, real shareholder question. The price of the share is around $76 give or take a few pennies. And I was under the understanding a few years ago when I had the shares that when you merge the shares and got it up high that eventually you split them or give us a stock dividend or something like that. And I mentioned this to you earlier ma'am, if you could respond to that concern because my personal opinion is I like that share price around $30 some odd a share as opposed to $70 So go ahead. Thank you. And thanks for that feedback for being here from Florida with your father. At the time of the merger, we actually did the opposite of the stock split. We did a reverse stock split. And Bill Curranz, who is our Head of Investor Relations spent countless hours explaining how this worked. But we were trying to get fewer shares out. So we have about 700 shares outstanding. And as the company has continued to grow, the price has grown to $76 We evaluate from time to time where it's priced relative to other shares. And at some point may consider a split, but there's nothing in the works at this point. The dividend is extraordinarily important to Duke and we always look for ways we continue to grow the dividend. We know it's important to our investors. So thank you. Number 6 please. Vice Chair, good members of the Board. My name is Bob Phillips and I'm a proxy for Common Cause, which is a shareholder of Duke Energy. Certainly, this company has a proud legacy in North Carolina and you've created jobs and you've given an array of charitable contributions to communities across the state and beyond. Obviously, Duke Energy is also a player in today's big money politics game. And with the passion that was displayed earlier and the passion that see with some of the issues that are confronting North Carolina, there's growing concerns about the link between politics and decisions. I know that there was a proposal that's been on the Proposal 6 and we're here to support that. And I know last year I think 42% of the shareholders actually did support that. But I would just ask the Board and Vice Chair Goode to you, what is the downside of providing more transparency? You all are doing more and it's displayed on your website. See who's making the decision specifically about where money is going and particularly to these independent expenditure groups and where we don't really know where that money is going, more transparency could be provided. Other corporations are doing so. And so again my question is what is the downside in Duke Energy providing that greater transparency? Thank you. Thank you. And thanks for your question. We've made a number of changes and updates to our Governor's practices around political contributions. And they are We have We have a PAC that has a Board of employees who are very involved in making the decisions on where the PAC money will go. And we believe these disclosures are providing appropriate information to our shareholders about how Duke is involved. And you'll notice that this proposal we had, it was defeated this year 23% in favor. So I believe that's recognition that the company is moving in the right direction. Much like the passion you saw here on Solar, we support involvement in the political process. We think it's important that all of us get involved and express our point of view and voices and we'll continue to be a part of that discussion. So I appreciate your point of view and I appreciate that we will continue to focus on ensuring that we have the right governance on our political contributions. Thank you. Number 7, please. Good morning. Hi, I'm Christy Driscoll. I live in Charlotte. I'm a mother of 2 young children. Some of the things I'm going to say have already been mentioned, but I still want to say my statement. I'm deeply concerned about Duke Energy's continued dependence on fossil fuels. And I want to urge you Duke Energy to move toward renewable energy even more than you do so today. I first learned about dirty fossil fuels versus clean renewable sources of energy when I was in 6th grade science class in 1988. A quarter of a century later, we're still talking about the same issue, dedicating 4% of energy creation to renewable energy by 2029 is far from adequate in my opinion. We must think of the communities downwind from coal fired plants. We must think of the residents with contaminated drinking water. We must think of our children and their children. I want you Duke Energy to choose solar energy. I envision a future with renewable energy for all. The demand for residential solar has never been solar has never been higher. Solar will bring more jobs to our local economy. Solar will bring lower energy rates for all and it is a clean technology, the complete opposite of burning coal and of fracking for natural gas. Shareholders will be more incented to invest in your company knowing that an environmental disaster is not lurking in your future. Shareholders will appreciate your long term sustainable business model. I challenge you Duke Energy to move away from a dirty outdated model of creating energy and to become a leader for a clean bright future with solar. Will you take my challenge? I appreciate your question. And we've had an opportunity to talk a little bit about solar today. Let me just expand that discussion. In the Carolinas, about 40% to 50% of your energy comes from a carbon free source already. That carbon free source is nuclear. We are one of the largest nuclear operators in the U. S. And have had an extraordinary track record. And that is making carbon emissions in this area lower than what they otherwise would be because 50% of the energy comes from nuclear. Solar, we believe will be increasingly important, but there are some practical applications I need to share with you. Solar only works about 20% of the time. I cannot provide 20 fourseven reliability of power on solar energy alone. The complementary technologies of battery storage and other things that would be necessary to provide the reliable consistent power does not exist today. It means we're on a journey. Maybe 20 or 30 years from now all of that will come together, but it needs to be a part of a portfolio. And so what we're doing here at Duke is we're working on that portfolio. Being a 3rd in the nation in solar means that we are investing in a way that makes sense. And we are continuing to fit it into our portfolio so that we can provide the service that our customers count on. So the February 20, 7 am peak demand, the sun wasn't up. In order for me to provide the power to keep the lights on at 7 am on winter morning, I need some other resources. So that's the practical application of that and I appreciate your passion for it. We're on the journey. We're working on it, but working on it is part of a portfolio. So thank you. Number 8 please. I came prepared for this question. Good morning, Mr. Good. My name is Fred Counsell. I affirm I am a shareholder And I compliment all the other shareholders yourself for hearing these many years. My suggestion to name most reflective of our business be Duke Power. So compliment for listening. I have another compliment and that is Bonnet Springs, Kansas, the International Lineman I have a compliment to the Charlotte Burger Police Department having the procedure to have uniform police women and policemen in due time. We'll see more police women. Regarding the shareowner proposals, I be better addressed at the Securities and Exchange Commission level in Form 10 ks. For example, at page 25 of our 10 ks report, item number 4 would be an ideal place to have these 3 proposals in front of all reporting organization and not just single out as a single item for Duke alone. Each are excellent, but I voted no, because they do not apply to all. And finally, I acknowledge and compliment the shareowner number 7, the children. The children are here in our meeting room. So I acknowledge and compliment. Welcome. Thank you so much and thank you for your comments. I actually have a Duke Power 100 year anniversary emblem that I thought I would share with you. So we expected you to be here. And so let me give you that gift. Thank you, Tyler. Yes. Very good. Thank you and thank you for your comments. Appreciate you being here. Number 9. My name is Patricia Latta. I am from Davie County. I own a little bit over 1,000 shares of Duke. My question is sort of twofold. One is hoping that what I have read in the newspaper is correct that the shareholders of Duke will pay for the cleanup. And I'm wondering if the shareholders we're talking about maybe the Board of Directors and the senior management, since those of us who are shareholders small as we are, and we haven't had the privilege of hearing reports or seeing reports that perhaps the Board did or the senior management did. We have no control over whether or not action was due process or whether it was due diligence or whatever that made the what I would call the terrible thing that happened with the coal ash. So tell us please, how are you going to have the shareholders pay if that is the truth that the newspapers put out several weeks ago that it would be the shareholders. And I'm also glad it's not the people who are getting their electricity from Duke Power. So thank you for that question. I assume that's related to Dan River, the Dan River incident. As I shared with you last year and I'll share with you again, Dan River is our responsibility. It did not happen the way we expected it to happen, did not meet our standards and the cleanup, the repair and the monitoring of the river is completely on Duke Energy. We are responsible. We will not charge customers for that. But when we talk about the broader issue of how ash should be stored over a long term basis at all of our coal plants, this is not an issue that is a Duke Energy issue. This is an issue for the entire industry. There are 6 70 ash basins around the U. S. That have been stored where ash has been stored in accordance with industry standards for decades. And those standards are changing now and I respect that and I support that. We see those standards changing in North Carolina in the form of the legislation that was passed last summer and we see them changing nationally as a result of the rules that the EPA published in April of this year. And so we have work underway to comply with these new rules, so that we can store in a sustainable long term way the ash resulting from the production of electricity over decades from coal. And the process that will be underway here in North Carolina as well as throughout the U. S. In a very transparent way in front of the utility and regulatory commissions of the state, there will be a review of what the costs are and how the costs should be allocated to customers or shareholders. And that's a process that will occur over the next 5, 10 15 years. So this is an issue that is not just a Duke issue, it's an industry issue and we'll continue to keep our shareholders informed along the way. So thank you for your question. Shareholder with number 10 please. Good morning. I'm Jim Warren, Director of N. C. Warren. I want to correct a couple of things quickly before I start. Carbon emissions are down. You didn't include discussion about the recession nor the fact that that count does not include vast amounts of methane being released from the fracking process. Number 2, you talked about coal plant closures. You all have gotten a lot of great PR over the years by continuing to say that most of those plants were small, little used plants some were not being used at all. You've got Duke Energy is juggling a number of high profile, very serious PR disasters, not just in North Carolina and Florida, other places too. And I'm encouraging you to take a path that genuinely tries to redress those in favor of the public well-being. I hear you talk about spending $73,000,000 last year in basically benefits or giveaways to the public. I don't think that even include political contributions. But that's an important part of the business model and the public is gradually seeing that that is part of the business model more and more. And as Bob Phillips said, people are getting really concerned. I think that's going to be your continuing PR disaster too. You've opened up a new one here by opposing the rooftop solar thing by joining in with the Koch Brothers and ALEC and the national strategy as exposed through the Washington Post to try to kill out rooftop solar. And one of the most insulting ways you've done is trying to pick off African American leaders in the state. Many people of color are insulted both economically and in terms of climate change. You have the capacity Duke Energy could move the market in really important ways Ms. Goode and we really are calling on you to join with the public and help us do that. I hear you talk about 20 or 30 years for now and that scares me to death because society is not here at Jim, thank you. Thank you. And I appreciate your perspective. I stand behind my facts around the company that I run. Our carbon emissions are down 20%. We are not involved in fracking. And I do believe the sustainability report, which I showed you a moment ago, is a great source of facts around Duke Energy. We work very hard to put forward where we are on all of these issues. And I also believe our track record around renewables is clear. We worked as part of the collaborative process to develop Senate Bill 3 here in North Carolina, which has been a key piece of legislation that has moved state in the direction of introducing more renewable energy. And we support a collaborative process to continue that conversation. If we want to go in a different direction as a state, if we want to broaden our reach, let's bring all stakeholders together, let's bring all customers together, let's bring the utility industry, the solar industry, the renewable industry together. It's that type of dialogue that gets to hard choices and decisions to move the state forward. So I appreciate your point of view. Duke is a leader in this direction and it is not a matter of delay. When you wrestle with issues that are of this size and scale and magnitude, I would love to tell you Jim that you can just get an answer like this pull out the iPhone there's a solution. The issues are more complicated than that. It requires study. It requires different points of view. It requires conversation. It requires practical application of good ideas that have to go into the field and work. And that's the kind of work that I believe we'll be proud of. And as we sit here today, 100 years, the work that this company has undertaken over many years to get us to this point, Our rates are 20% below national average. We have an incredibly competitive area. We have reduced green Yes. I'm Dawn Crawley and I live directly next to the proposed coal ash toxic dump that y'all want to put in Sanford, North Carolina. And I have a small farm there. I'm one of 2,000 people. There's 2,000 people within a half mile of this area where y'all want to put this. There's springs on my property. So there's springs on that property. They will be bubbling up through the bottom. The liners are not safe. They're the thickest two things. They've been tested on municipal waste sites, not on toxic coal ash, the heavy metals and the things that are in here. You all got sites already leaking toxic metals into who's going to pay for my farm and the farms around? Land sales have already stopped. We can't sell the land. We can't do anything. You all are going to be spreading ash down the roads, down the railroad tracks. You say you wet it down, but it will dry out. They've already got pictures of it in asphal where it's flying out. They've got pictures of it down at the Moncure site where it's flying just from the thing. If you all need the clay, haul it out of there and put it somewhere else, but don't spread the toxic ash everywhere. It's like putting a band aid on a staph infection and spread pus all over the state. Y'all just going to spread the coal ash everywhere, not fix it. It needs to be recycled, solidified or something done on-site and not spread it over the state for our children and generations to come are going to be spread. When you do this, you can't those sites can never be cleaned up where it's already at. It will be here forever. It will be here for the rest of our lives, the lives of our children. Do you all not care about the children and generations to come and this earth to come? And then you're going to frack on top of it, so then we'll have all that. It's on the fault right, running right through the area. You know, y'all just have no cahoots to clean up what y'all doing. You just want to spread it around all over the state. You get it in our area, you're going to put it everywhere else because there's already other sites under thing. Thank you. I appreciate your passion You respect my passion? Well, and I I respect it. If I could take may I take a moment and respond? I'd love to. I'd like to take a moment to respond if I could, because I take that very seriously and I can tell how strongly you feel about it. I respect that and would like to take a moment to respond. And I appreciate that you're upset and this may not be the best time for us to have this conversation. But I would I'm sorry? You didn't test it. Well, and that's what I'm going to to try to do. And then what I would encourage is we have an information booth with subject matter experts on this matter, who are available to talk with you and other members of your community. And Tim Goss is actually coming right here, one of our district managers. I appreciate and respect your strong feelings about this. Let me tell you what we're trying to accomplish. We have a requirement in North Carolina to address 4 high priority sites. They must be addressed by 2019. We must excavate the sites. Our first choice, always our first choice is to put the ash on our sites. And you have seen us identify landfills at 3 of our sites in order to find a space to put the ash. It will take us a couple of years to move through a permitting process to be able to move the ash to those sites. And with the timeframe we're working with, we don't have enough land. We are sending ash to Georgia. We're sending ash to Virginia. And we identified the mines in Lee and Chatham County for reclamation, for structural fill that has aligned solution I would ask you to get the information. We have information available. The objective is to create usable land. And there's a stakeholder process that is ongoing and it will continue to go. Our objective is to try to balance the storage, the timeframe and an approach that ensures safety. And so I would encourage you to spend some time with our folks. And I want to say this to you in a way I don't know if you'll hear me right now, but this is our home too. I have 13,000 employees who live in the state. I have 10,000 retirees. We want to be a good neighbor. We care deeply about the communities that are around us. We care deeply about safety. It is our highest priority at Duke. And so I would encourage you when you have a moment to spend with our team, I would love to spend more time to have this conversation with you, because that's what we're trying to accomplish. And thank you so much for being here today. Number 12, please. Number 12. Number 13. Good morning. My name is Corinne Mack. I am the President of the Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP. So I had a speech written, but because I've heard so many different things, it's changed. What I wanted to say is, well, my first question is, where is the love? I am deeply concerned that Duke Energy does not seem to see their moral responsibility to all people. The fact is African American children and low wealth children are dying every day, not because of just Dan River, which is a very egregious spill, but many other spills. And though I hear what you're saying in reference to your investigatory process and all the things you've done that's wonderful, I'm seeing every day how many of our children have respiratory issues, have asthma, who are sick, who can't afford healthcare. I also heard you say that you have community involvement and you're giving so much money, not to my community. I'm a leader in the community and have been for 9 years. And I've never seen anybody from Duke Energy come in my community. So that definitely means there needs to be an additional conversation. I want you also to say to understand that I am also a product of the New York City Transit Authority and the retirement system. I'm a retired transit worker and a Vice President, a former Vice President. And so coming here into Charlotte and hearing these conversations is very disturbing simply because of this. I love God, which means I love God's people, all of God's people, including those who've wronged my community, who continue to wrong my community. And all I'm asking you to do is do the right thing. And the right thing would be first to converse with all community leaders, not just those who you can buy. More importantly, to understand our plight and you learn our plight by conversing with us and really truly finding ways across the board to work with all people, not this sum. Secondly, looking at your Board of Directors, it's not a diverse group. Ultimately Black folk or even that many women. And so I would hope that that would change as well. Thirdly, CMPD and CMS has done a great thing by understanding they needed additional understanding of my community. And so they're doing dismantling racism training as well as implicit bias training. And I would suggest that your leaders do the same thing as well as your workers because clearly you don't understand that some of your actions obviously involve implicit bias. Thank you for your time and knowledge. Thank you for your comments. Engagement with stakeholders and community leaders has long been a part Duke Energy. And if we haven't had a chance to meet you, we'd love to have a chance to meet you. There's an information booth out front that talks about the Duke Energy Foundation and the objectives we're trying to achieve with the foundation, whether it's education, community vitality, environment, economic development. We take diversity very seriously. We have employee resource groups across a very diverse group. And in fact, I see Hilda Penick's Raglan here. Hilda is responsible for our grassroots effort and also our outreach to community and would love to find a way to connect you all, so that we can start the conversation that I think will be important to both of us. So thank you for being here. Number 14, please. Good morning, everybody. I am Sylvia Barnes. I live in Goldsboro, North Carolina, which used to be known as the home of the H. F. Lee. I am I started working at I must say that I was a proud employee of CP and L. Loved them, did my job to the best of my ability. But last year, when I learned about what was happening in my community, in my county and the people that are dying there that live out on Old Smithfield Road where the HFC plant still stands. I am concerned. As my sister just said, it seems to be no love the people there and that is a big concern of mine. That is why I am here this morning because I was asked by the citizens of Wayne County to come and speak for them. I want to ask a question. As I look and watch news and TV where people are advertising about if you have had a mesh sling, a pelvic sling, if you worked and have I can't right now I'm so full, I can't think of the name of the word. But my question to you is that if these people can prove that they are dying from cancer, what will you all do as a company? And what will his stockholders be held? There was a lot in that question. And I think it has to do with health concerns perhaps around the H. F. Lee plant. What I would say to you is there is no science directly linking our operations to health concerns. This is the Environmental Protection Agency. This is other national labs and others who study these issues. And I appreciate that at times that there are health challenges, it's one of the most challenging of our lives. But we'd love to have a conversation with you. And again, I would point to our information booths that are outside to specifically engage on questions you may have, so that we can learn more. So thank you for being here. And thank you for your service, to Carolina Power and Light. Number 15, please. My name is Josh Brennan. I have a question regarding solar from a different perspective. There have been countless industries over the years that have been destroyed by changes in technological innovation. Than buying their power from Duke Energy. It seems like right now the only plan that Duke Energy has to counter that is regulatory 3rd party electricity sales. What is your long term goal? Because sooner or later when everyone has rooftop solar, when every parking lot is covered with solar, when every business is covered with solar, when these Tesla batteries that were announced last week when the price on those drops, what's your new business model going to be? I mean for a while, you're going to be a grid. You're going to have to serve as a backup power source. But even eventually once everyone has sufficient batteries, you won't even be you won't even have that as something to fall back on. So what is your long term goal to combat solar in terms of your pricing, your business model and ultimately your company? And our goal is not to combat solar. Our goal is to innovate and embrace solar as we have demonstrated with our actions up to this point. And I look at our track record and we've talked about it a couple of times. We see the innovations that are coming. We believe it will be important to the provision of electricity. I would share one statistic with you. We talked about the fact solar doesn't work all the time. The average rooftop solar installation does not produce enough power to start the motor of your air conditioner. Today it does not. And so for a period of time, I think most of you would count on us to start your air conditioner. Most of you would count on us to provide power at night. Most of you would count on us to provide power in extraordinary periods, cloud rolling by, perhaps damage to a roof. And at some point, if it innovate the innovation occurs that everyone can be off the grid, then my hope and expectation is that Duke is a part of that and that we are trusted energy. So we have some time to get there. And in the meantime, we're working actively to be involved in all of these technologies. We have, my goodness 6, 7, 8 different installations of batteries around our system including one large enough to couple with a wind farm, so that we can work with the intermittency and see how we can put that important technology to work. So you should think of us as someone innovating right along with you and we have the subject matter expertise to make this work. Number 17. This is Abby. This is Abby. I met Abby in the ladies' room a little bit ago. Thank you. Hello. My name is Abby Driscoll. I think that it's important that more people are able to use solar energy because it will mean a healthier world for me and for my children and for my children. I'm worried that the world will not be the way it is today if things keep going on the way they are going now. I hope that Duke Energy remembers that the decisions they make affect me and my family now and in the future. I want everyone to have clean streams and clean air to breathe. Coal makes it hard for people to breathe and coal pollutes our water. I hope that Duke Energy will use more solar energy and stop using coal. Thank you. So, Abi, thanks for being here. It's a brave thing to talk in front of all these people. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your interest. I also want clean rivers. I want clean air. And we're working in that direction. So thanks for being here today. Number 18. Hello, thank you. My name is John Wagner and I'm a resident of Chatham County. And Duke has a serious coal ash problem and you're not dealing with it well. Why attempt to move the coal ash from the sites in Wilmington and Charlotte and dump it on a rural disadvantaged community. You don't need to move it. Moving it introduces the chance that it will blow off of the trains and off of the trucks and you'll have air contamination issues on both routes all the way into Lee and Chatham Counties. You need to move it as little as possible. That's been stated by a lot of experts. Don't move it unless it's absolutely necessary to get it away from the rivers where you currently have almost all your coal ash right beside the rivers. You need to move them in, but keep them on Duke property. Your plan is to put them in plastic liners and that's the cheapest possible solution that you can come up with. If you want to do a long term solution, you don't use plastic. I've researched this. It cracks, it leaks and it will not last and her generation and people very soon will be dealing with the problems. The solution is to keep it above ground on Duke's property and solidify it and surround it by concrete. This is a known technology, saltstone technology. You can make large round containers of concrete with a flat top and put solar panels on top of that and you have not only changed it from a dangerous site, you've changed it to a positive one and moved forward with solar. And last, deal with it across the state. Don't pick a few sites even though the legislature asked for it. Clean them all up and stop the leaks and the seepage that's going on at every single site right now. Deal with that now. Thank you for your question. And let me start with the end, which is we will deal with every site in North Carolina total environmental footprint of moving the ash is exactly what we're doing. We're relying upon and working closely with our panel of experts, environmental scientists, civil engineers, those who are specialists in groundwater to develop those solutions. But we have an obligation to excavate 4 high priority sites, which means they have to be picked up and moved. Our first choice is to put them on our sites, but we don't always have enough land for our sites. And further, we have a timeline by 2019 to get it moving. What I would love to ask for support on is getting the permits necessary to keep this moving, because that will be an important part of us getting to the solution that you recommend and that we are striving so vigorously to achieve. There's also information outside with our subject matter experts on the lining technology. We believe it's an industry leading solution. We believe it's a safe solution. So I'd love to have you talking with those experts and sharing ideas. We want to get to the best solution long term. So thank you for your question. Looks like we have time for one more. Number 19? Who has 19? How about number 20? My name is John Wendel. I'm a resident of Charlotte shareholder customer. And I've heard more about Dan River and coal ash and everything else in the last year and a half than I thought I would hear in my life time. That being said, it seems that what you're doing is you're trying to go and just deal with the existing problem and that's great. The problem is what's going to happen in the future It seems that the best thing It seems that the best thing is to move towards a natural gas in terms of the power generation. You've got all these problems, all these solutions, none of them are acceptable it seems to a lot of people. And anything that you come up with, especially if it's on Duke Power or Duke Energy land, if there's ever any problem with that, you're going to get the blame. There could be a Category 5 hurricane that comes through. You're going to be the one to see it again. And this is still going to be an ongoing issue years to come if anything happens. And I don't know if that's being addressed right now. I would try to move away from that and get to something else and natural gas appears to be the way to go and then you eliminate this product that has to be disposed of. And I just don't see another way around this. And tell me where I'm wrong. Thank you for that comment. And natural gas, I just touched on it briefly in my remarks. Natural gas is an important part of the future of generation and electricity. Over the last 3 or 4 years, we have added 5 partnering with Dominion to bring into this region is so we have are partnering with Dominion to bring into this region is so we have the infrastructure to put gas to work. And so it will be increasingly important and we're investing in in a way that makes sense for our customers. So I appreciate that feedback and interest in Duke. Thanks for being here. Okay. So we've had a good conversation today on a variety of topics, a lot of passion and interest in the company, which I appreciate. I appreciate your investment your confidence that we are hard at work balancing all of these objectives, affordable energy, reliable energy, clean energy and commitment to our community. This is our home. We want this to be a successful place where all of us can thrive and appreciate your being here. We have information booths that I've referred to a number of times today that are in the atrium. Our senior management team will be manning those as well as subject matter experts. Many of them are here in the room. I would encourage you, if you have more questions to take a moment and get those questions asked from our team. We'd be delighted to spend time with you and hear specifically what's on your mind. So thanks again for being here and thanks for your investment in Duke Energy.