Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Kinder Morgan, Inc. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we will have a question and answer session. If you signed into the meeting as a stockholder with a 16 digit control number, you can submit a written question at any time by clicking on the message icon at the top of your screen. Please note that your registered name will be announced along with your question during the Q and A session following the formal portion of the meeting.
Please also note that stockholders who signed in with the 16 digit control number and guests are in a listen only mode. It It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Richard B. Kinder, Executive Chairman of Kinder Morgan, Inc. Mr. Kinder, the floor is yours.
Okay. Thank you, Noah. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to welcome all of you to the Kinder Morgan 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Due to the public health impact of the COVID-nineteen pandemic and out of concern for the health and well-being of both our stockholders and our employees, we're hosting today's meeting through this virtual online platform.
Online with me today are members of our senior management and Board of Directors as well as John Brady of PwC. At this time, I call the meeting to order. The agenda and rules of conduct for the meeting have been posted on the virtual platform. Now let me review with you what we're going to accomplish today. First, we will conduct the formal portion of the meeting and vote on the 3 proposals on the agenda.
The polls will close as soon as I finish reading the 3 proposals on the agenda, and I will announce the preliminary voting results at that time. Accordingly, if you join the meeting as a stockholder using the 16 digit control number you received from Computershare and have not cast your vote, please do so at this time. After the formal portion of the meeting, I will give a brief presentation about the current state of the company and then we will hold a Q and A session before adjourning the meeting. If you join the meeting as a stockholder using the 16 digit control number, you have the ability to submit written questions by clicking on the message icon at the top of your screen. If you join the meeting as a guest, you will not be able to submit questions.
Questions should be properly focused solely on the official business of the company and should not be used to present economic, political or other views that are not directly related to the business of the meeting. We're limiting questions to 1 per stockholder plus one follow-up question per stockholder. We've allotted 20 minutes for the question and answer period, which we believe should be sufficient based on our historical experience with these meetings. I would like to introduce Adam Forman, President and Secretary of Kinder Morgan. I will preside over the meeting and I ask Mr.
Forman to serve as Secretary of the meeting. I appoint David Cruz of Computershare, who is President Online as Inspector of Election. The Inspector of Election has agreed to serve and assign the oath of that office. The oath will be included with the minutes of this meeting. Computershare has provided a list of the company's registered stockholders as of the close of business on the record date, which was March 16, 2020.
This list is available on the virtual platform for inspection during the meeting by those who have joined the meeting as stockholders. Computershare has delivered an affidavit of mailing certifying that the mailing of the notice of this meeting was made on April 3, 2020 to the stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 16, 2020. A copy of the affidavit will be included with the minutes of the meeting. The Inspector of Election has signed a certificate of quorum, which certifies that a quorum of the stockholders of the company is present or represented by proxy at the meeting. That certificate will also be included with the minutes of this meeting.
The first item on the agenda is a proposal to elect the 16 nominated directors to hold office for a 1 year term in accordance with our certificate of incorporation and bylaws. As indicated in the proxy statement, the Board of Directors recommend that you vote in favor of the election of each of the director nominees. The second item on the agenda is a proposal to ratify the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2020. As indicated in the proxy statement, the Board of Directors recommends that you vote in favor of this proposal. The 3rd item on the agenda is a proposal to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of our named executive officers.
As indicated in the proxy statement, the Board of Directors recommends that you vote in favor of this proposal. That concludes the presentation proposals to be voted on. The polls are now closed for voting. The Inspector of Election has provided the preliminary voting results electronically and has confirmed the following. 1st, each of the 16 nominated directors has been elected by the affirmative votes of shares representing a majority of the votes cast.
2nd, the proposal to ratify the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our registered public accounting firm for 2020 has been adopted by the affirmative votes of shares representing a majority of the votes cast. 3rd, the proposal to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of our named executive officers has been adopted by the affirmative votes of shares representing a majority of the votes cast. This concludes the formal portion of the meeting. I will now give a brief presentation and then answer questions submitted by stockholders. If you turn to Slide 3, Hannah, please.
This is an overview of some of the important points of information concerning Kinder Morgan, and I think these points are particularly relevant given the challenging and unprecedented times in which we are currently existing. Existing. I would emphasize the cash flow stability of the company with about 3 quarters of our revenue coming from take or pay or hedged earnings and about 3 quarters coming from investment grade customers or others with substantial credit support. I think in these kind of times, the scale of the company is important. So it's important to note that Kinder Morgan has a market capitalization well in excess of dollars and that we have forecasted about $7,000,000,000 of EBITDA for 2020 and we believe we're an industry leader in all the segments in which we operate.
We have growth for the future with a backlog of projects in excess of $3,000,000,000 We think we have capital flexibility to fund our dividend and capital projects with cash flow as we are doing in 2020. We have ample liquidity with an undrawn $4,000,000,000 revolver. Our debt is investment grade and we have significant coverage for the dividend that we pay. Obviously, our prime objective is to return value to our shareholders. We now have $1.05 per share annualized dividend, while still maintaining balance sheet strength and returning value to our shareholders.
As we previously said on our April call, assuming a return to normal economic activity, our Board will review our dividend policy and the previously planned increase to $1.25 annualized at the January 2021 meeting for the Q4 of 2020. Finally, I think it's important to note that management is highly aligned with shareholders and management and the Board owns over 14% of the company. If you turn to Slide 4, you will see a map of the assets that exist at Kinder Morgan. We're the largest natural gas transmission network in the country. We have 70,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, 659 Bcf of natural gas storage capacity and very importantly, we move about 40% of all the U.
S. Natural gas consumption and exports across the country. We're also the largest independent transporter of refined products, moving about 1,700,000 barrels a day. We have about 7,000 miles of refined products and about 3,000 miles of crude pipelines. We're the largest terminal operator with almost 150 terminals and 16 Jones Act vessels and we're the largest transporter of CO2.
To sum all that up, it seems to me that we're the leading infrastructure provider across multiple energy products that are critical to the economic well-being of the United States and North America. If you turn to Slide 5, this shows the relative stock performance over the period of time beginning on January 1, 2019. The red line is Kinder Morgan, the black line is the S and P 500 and the green and pink lines are the 2 midstream indexes, the Alerian Midstream Energy Index and the Alerian MLP Index. As you can see through the end of the year before the coronavirus and the oil price downturn happened, we actually outperformed all of these other indices. Since then, with the coronavirus and the downturn in oil pricing, we continue to substantially outperform our peer groups, namely the Alerian Midstream Energy Index and the Alerian MLP Index, but we now have performed less satisfactorily than the S and P 500, I think as a direct result of the shutdown of the economy and particularly the price of oil dispute that broke out between the Saudis and the Russians.
Turning to Slide 6, I think it's important to summarize the response that our management team has made to the COVID-nineteen crisis. Steve and Kim and the team have done a really good job, I think in two respects. We prioritize the health of our coworkers and their families, while at the same time maintaining safe and reliable operations of our assets. I think it's important to note that all of our facilities are fully operational at this point. We're delivering energy that is essential to the people, the communities and the businesses we serve, while at the same time protecting the health and well-being of our coworkers and their families.
It's important to note that we went to telecommuting strategy on March 16. We will ramp back from that telecommuting very gradually over time again with due regard to the safety of our employees. Turning to Slide 7. At the April conference call, we adjusted our 2020 budget with a new forecast taking into account the probable effects of COVID-nineteen and the oil downturn. And this slide summarizes the difference in that forecast from the original budget and from 2019 actual results.
The key things are that our adjusted EBITDA went down by about 8%, but still remains very solid at $7,000,000,000 Our distributable cash flow went down by about 10% and still remains at $4,600,000,000 Importantly, we cut back on our discretionary CapEx from $2,400,000,000 to approximately $1,700,000,000 So the impact of all this is that the expected reduction in DCF is more than offset with reduced discretionary capital spending. So the net result is actually an increase in the cash position for 2020. And it follows the mantra that we've said so long at Kinder Morgan, cash is the absolute king. And again, as I said, assuming return to normal economic value, normal economic activity, we will review our dividend at the meeting to be held in January 2021 when we will report the results for the Q4 of 2020. Turning to Slide 8, I think it shows the resiliency of Kinder Morgan through prior cycles, notwithstanding the oil price, which is outlined in red, we have managed to generate over $1,700,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA for over 20 consecutive quarters through high prices and low prices for the commodity deck that we deal with.
Turning to Page 9, I think we believe we are prepared to weather the storm. We think we have a disciplined management of the balance sheet, which improves our position relative to prior downturns. We significantly lowered our leverage since the Q3 of 2015. We paid down about $10,000,000,000 in debt and we have been self funding all our dividends and all our CapEx with over $19,000,000,000 of cash flow from operations since 2016 and both of those are shown on Slide 9. Turning to Slide 10.
We still have growth projects underway of about $3,300,000,000 in our backlog. You can see that the bulk of these is in our natural gas segment, which we believe offers the most upside for the future in terms of continued reliance by our economy on that particular commodity and we also have spending in our products terminals and CO2 segments. So if you turn to Slide 11, summing up the compelling investment opportunity that we think is presented at Kinder Morgan, we have strategically positioned assets across the entire country. We generate substantial cash flow and we have attractive investment opportunities. We think that bodes well for the future.
We think it's important that we're funding our dividend and capital projects with cash flow that we continue to maintain and grow our dividend and that we have a management that is highly aligned with our shareholders. Now market sentiment may change, it does almost on a daily basis, but we intend to remain focused on making money for our shareholders. And that concludes the presentation. And with that, for the question and answer portion of the meeting, I'd like to introduce Anthony Ashley, our Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. And Anthony will read aloud the shareholder questions that we have had.
Anthony?
Thanks, Rich. We have a question from Patricia Seabrook. Last year, you produced a climate report that included a scenario analysis, which examined how a low carbon transition would impact our company's business. Are you applying the lessons of that analysis to your ongoing strategic planning? And has anything concrete changed as a result?
Thank you, Anthony. And that's a very good question. Our scenario analysis indicates that our lower carbon natural gas pipeline assets will continue to be important in the future. And as I said earlier, we're allocating the majority of our growth capital expenditures to that Natural Gas Pipeline business segment. Prime example of that was the Gulf Coast Express Pipeline running from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast, which we completed last year.
We're also putting more emphasis on marketing the deliverability and reliability of natural gas from our pipeline and storage networks as a complement to renewable energy. Obviously, at this point in time, natural gas is very important to the energy future of renewable energy as it provides the backup during the times when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine. An example of this has been what we've been doing on our El Paso natural gas system. Scenario analysis also indicates a growth in biofuels and we're working to transport and store more biofuels where there is demand for those services. This is impacting in a favorable way both our terminals and our products pipelines, which both handle biofuels.
Finally, with our experience in CO2 handling, we will look for opportunities to participate in carbon capture, use and storage projects for CO2. So in short, we believe that we are reflecting the analysis that we did as we move forward in an uncertain environment. Any other questions, Ashley? Anthony?
There are no other questions.
Okay. With that in mind, that concludes our question and answer session. We encourage stockholders who have additional questions to contact us through the Investor Relations page on our website. Since there is no additional business that may properly be brought before the meeting, I declare that the meeting is adjourned and thank you for dialing in this morning. Thank you.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.