CEO of PNM Resources. At this time, I'd like to call our meeting to order. If you haven't yet received a copy of the agenda or the rules of order, please raise your hand and a copy will be brought to you. I welcome each of you to this meeting, and thank you for your investment in our company. Before we begin today, I want to offer our heartfelt condolences to all of those with friends or loved ones who were injured or lost their lives in the shooting at Santa Fe High School last week. A number of our PNM employees live in Santa Fe and have children who attend the high school. While we're thankful that their children came through without serious injury, we know that they are grieving and have been deeply affected by this tragedy.
Our hearts go out to the community during this difficult time, and we will keep all of the families in our prayers. For your information, this meeting is also being made available by webcast. Verified shareholders will be able to submit questions via the webcast to a moderator, Ms. Blatter, during the meeting. That our meeting can proceed in a respectful and orderly fashion, I direct everyone to the procedures of the meeting. Shareholders wishing to address the meeting should, at the appropriate time, approach the microphone in the center. Please use the microphone so that everyone listening on the webcast may hear your questions. Please state your name and the number of shares you represent. Address your question to me as chairman of the meeting, and please limit your remarks to three minutes.
If you've had a chance to speak, please let others go before you ask to be recognized again. At this time, I'd like to introduce the directors of the company. Directors, if you would please stand when I introduce you. Norm Becker, President and CEO of New Mexico Mutual Casualty Company. Renee Conley, CEO of ER Solutions. Al Fohrer , retired Chairman and CEO of Southern California Edison. Sid Gutierrez, CEO of Rocket Crafters. Maureen Malarkey, partner with Blue Heron Investments. Don Schwanz , retired Chairman and CEO of CTS Corporation, and Bruce Wilkinson, retired Chairman and CEO of McDermott International and our independent lead director. Next, let me introduce the executive officers of PNM Resources. Chuck Eldred , Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Patrick Apodaca, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. Ron Darnell, Vice President of Public Policy, and Chris Olson, Senior Vice President of Utility Operations.
We are also pleased to have the Honorable Matthew T. Doyle, the mayor of Texas City, here with us today. Thank you, Mayor, for your attendance. Also with us from our auditors, KPMG, are Mr. John Kanasic, Chief Client Services Partner, and Ms. Carolyn Garcia, Partner. Our agenda for today's meeting is divided into two parts. In the first part, we will address the formal business of the company, including five items for our shareholders' consideration. The second part will involve an overview of 2017 and our focus for 2018. We will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. Mr. Apodaca, Secretary of the company, will record the proceedings of the meeting. The Board of Directors previously appointed Kathy Martinez, PNM Resources, and Andrew Wilcox, representing Broadridge Financial Solutions, as inspectors of election.
Prior to this meeting, Ms. Martinez and Mr. Wilcox subscribed to the oath of inspectors of election. Mr. Secretary, would you please consult with the inspectors and report if a quorum is present?
Madam Chairman, the company had outstanding as of the record date, April 2nd, 2018, a total of 79,653,624 shares of common stock. 91.09% of the outstanding common shares are represented at this meeting in person or by proxy. This constitutes a quorum for voting on all matters to be considered during the annual meeting of shareholders.
Mr. Secretary, would you please report on the notice of meeting, proxy materials, and proxies received?
The notice of the meeting and internet availability of proxy materials were mailed by Broadridge Financial Solutions beginning on April 10th, 2018, to all shareholders of record as of April 2nd, 2018. As a result, the meeting is being held pursuant to proper notice and proxies received.
Thank you. The secretary will place those documents on file with the records of the meeting. The first three items of business that I present and move for action at this meeting are the following three management proposals listed as proposals one, two, and three in the proxy materials. The first item of business is the election of eight directors named in the proxy statement. The second item of business is to ratify the appointment of KPMG as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2018. The third item of business is to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of our named executive officers known as say on pay.
The board of directors recommend a vote in favor of proposals one, two, and three for the reasons set forth in a proxy statement made available to each shareholder as of the record date of April 2nd, 2018. The fourth and fifth items of business are shareholder proposals. The fourth item of business is to consider and vote on a shareholder proposal to request that Public Service Company of New Mexico publish an assessment PNM's generation portfolio. The proposal and supporting statement can be found in the proxy statement. We received notice from the shareholder proponent, the Max and Anne Levinson Foundation, that the foundation has authorized Lila June Johnston to attend this meeting as its representative in order to move the adoption of this proposal. Ms. Johnston, would you please step over to the microphone and identify yourself so that you may present the foundation's proposal?
Under our meeting procedures, you have three minutes to do so.
Thank you very much for your attention and for having me. My name is Lila June Johnston. I am proxy for Charlotte Levinson, shareholder who could not be here today. This resolution reads as follows. In November 2016, the Paris Agreement entered into force. Its goal of keeping global temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius has already begun to shape national policies and industries. In June 2016, the credit rating agency, Moody's, indicated that they would begin to analyze carbon transition risk based on scenarios consistent with the Paris Agreement and noted the high carbon risk exposure of the power sector. Rapid expansion of low carbon technologies, including distributed solar, battery storage, grid modernization, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles provide not only challenges for our utility business models, but also opportunities for growth.
A 2-degree scenario analysis of our company's current generation and future plans will generate a comprehensive picture of current and future risks and opportunities for our company going beyond our routine planning. By assessing the impact of a 2-degree scenario of global warming on the company's full portfolio of power generation assets and planned capital expenditures through 2040, including the financial risks associated with such scenarios, the company can better plan for future regulatory, technological, and market changes. Numerous companies are involved in doing such an assessment. Resources such as recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. The task force is comprised of 32 global members representing a broad range of economic sectors and financial markets. In 2017, with respect to the 2-degree scenario resolution, PNM argued that such a study would duplicate information they were already required to provide to state and federal regulators.
The SEC specifically rejected our company's arguments, and the resolutions went ahead to a vote. PNM was confronted with strong support for the 2-degree scenario resolution, which received 49.9% of the vote. In a year where 2-degree scenario resolutions were presented at a number of companies and received support nationwide, PNM's percentage in favor was one of the highest after only Occidental Petroleum, which received 67%, and Exxon Mobil, which was 62%. We believe there's a compelling self-interest for PNM and our shareholders to do this assessment. Shareholders request that PNM, with board oversight, publish an assessment at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information of the long-term impacts on the company's portfolio of public policies and technological advances that are consistent with limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Johnston. I would like to advise the shareholders that the board believes the proposal is not in the best interest of the company and its shareholders for the reasons set forth in the proxy statement and recommend to vote against the proposal. The fifth item of business is to consider and vote on a shareholder proposal to adopt a policy to require an independent chair. The proposal and supporting statement can be found in the proxy statement. We received notice from the shareholder proponent, Robert Andrew Davis, that he would attend this meeting, I want to say Andy, in order to move adoption of this proposal. Mr. Davis, would you please step over to the microphone, identify yourself, and present your proposal?
I just want to say, never call your child after the middle name. It's a lifelong torment. My name is Robert Davis, officially. Chairwoman Collawn, members of the board, officers of the company thank you for letting me speak. Thank you for letting me present this. The core of the proposal is resolved. The shareholders request the board of directors to adopt this policy and amend the bylaws as necessary to require the chair of the board of directors, whenever possible, to be an independent member of the board. This policy would be phased in for the next CEO transition. That's the core of the proposal. All of you, as people in the business world, are aware that this is very much a current issue in companies worldwide. In the United Kingdom, it's the norm to have a separate CEO and chairman of the board.
Here, it's becoming more and more popular. Certainly, it's enough so to influence the lead director movement, which is the form of the company here. You also will be aware that ISS, the proxy advisory company, in their materials suggested that they normally, when such a proposal is recommended, they normally advise a vote for, that this is a good idea. In this particular case, they advised a vote against. I think they actually missed some things. Their main reason, summarizing it in straightforward English, was that if it's not broke, don't fix it, that the company is doing fine, so why change the current situation? As I said, I think they missed some things. There are two incidentals that I note from the proxy materials.
One, just a note in passing, that in terms of determining the chairperson's salary for this last year, in terms of meeting metrics, that while the stock price was met, the reliability and our consumer satisfaction, not so good. To me, that should be, to a shareholder, actually, a sign of something not correct in the emphasis of the business. The other thing is that in terms of the qualifications, I note that if you read between the lines, that their main justification for keeping the CEO, also the chairman of the board, is that Pat Collawn, and I compliment you, is supremely qualified to take that role because of her experience outside the company with issues of sustainability and environmental policy. Unfortunately, that to me is not a good sign. That's a bad sign. I'll just go on.
That's a bad sign because of the final thing that ISS missed, which is even though the company seems, and the times seem profitable and going well, that in actuality, the ground is shaking under all of our feet right now. On the one hand, technology is changing dramatically, rapidly. On the other hand, there for all of us to see, and in Houston here we can see it around us, environmental change, environmental threat is there for us to see. It's all around us. In such a time, it's important to have, to use another phrase, all hands on deck. I think the fact that the main competent person in this organization in terms of that threat is Pat, is good, but it's also bad, and we need the board on board and taking a full and substantial role in facing what is a very uncertain future.
How am I on time? Am I doing okay?
Your time's up. Go ahead and finish that thought.
Okay. Very quickly.
Okay.
Taking a lesson from being a parent, the only way to encourage independent children is to give them independence. The only way to encourage a board to take responsibility for what is a very dangerous time is to give them the absolute responsibility to take that role. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I would like to advise the shareholders that the board believes the proposal is not in the best interest of the company and its shareholders for the reasons set forth in the proxy statement, and therefore recommend a vote against the proposal. At this time, in order so that we can stay within our scheduled timeframe, we would welcome comments on the proposals only being acted on. We'll have time later on in the meeting for Q&A. If anyone would like to ask a question or have a comment on the proposals, please step to the microphone, identify yourself, and please limit your comments to three minutes.
Good morning, Madam Chair.
Good morning.
Thank you for making time for comments on the proposals. I'm in favor of both proposals. I'm guessing that doesn't surprise you. I want to talk about the 2-degree one. I feel like Mother Earth is speaking to us in the only language that she has about climate change. She's speaking in the language of unprecedented fires and melting ice caps and vanishing species. She's speaking about extended droughts and pollinators that aren't arriving, which bring us our food, and devastating hurricanes, which you all know here too well. For this reason, I think both these proposals, but particularly the 2-degree, speaks to me, and I hope that we'll do better as we move into the future.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Madam Chair, board, advisors, please forgive my attire. My luggage was lost.
Actually, I'm jealous of your attire. I could wear jeans every day. Well done.
My name is Nomi Green. I am an ordained Buddhist, I am in favor of the two proposals also, I'm sure not surprising. I would like to actually ask us to stop for a moment and breathe together. I'm wondering if you all would just take a moment to take a deep breath, feel the air going in, feel the air going out. I want to point out that this air cannot be separated. We share the air in this room. We have all already commingled our air. We cannot say, "This is my air, and that is your air." That is the same with these two degrees. We cannot say the quality of the environment will be good here and not good there. The entire Earth stands in the balance.
I know that the PNM's board, your job is to maximize profits, that is what you have been given to do. Yet, the IRP says that maximizing those profits actually will burn our planet. That is why we have to stay within this two degrees. We cannot afford to burn our planet. In fact, that is immoral. You all are powerful people. I want you to really notice that. You are very powerful people. You have the power to maximize profits, you have the power to change the paradigm and take care of this Earth that we all depend on. I ask you to really think, which one do you want to do? Thank you.
Thank you.
Madam Chair, Board, thank you for having me. My name is Greg Broyles. I'm a Houstonian. I'm here representing Paul Gibson, who is a shareholder. I would just like to say a few words that might help with this vote on these last two items. To whom are you responsible? Shareholders, stranded assets, energy sector profits, climate impact litigation, urban populations, coal ash, 410 parts per million CO2, one million years, Fukushima, Harvey, greed, generosity, business cycle, vision, spent uranium, cancer, slavery, apartheid, genocide, legacy, humanity, spirit, children, grandchildren, the future. Thank you.
Thank you. I believe there was someone else just now.
Good morning.
Morning.
I'm here on behalf of Leslie Lenk-Ind as a shareholder. I'm also a Diné woman from the Four Corners region of the U.S.A. San Juan Power Plant, Four Corners Power Plant, Navajo Generating Station, all the coal power plants in the region is impacting us as living beings. Not only for humans, but vegetation, animal, water, air. It's being contaminated and destroyed in the name of profit, this has to change. I come on this journey to share this with you as a member of a human being nation within the Four Corners area. We need a change for a better tomorrow so that we can have a future generation. All these fossil fuel development needs to change, Wall Street needs to learn that and understand that in a human way. I want you to understand this. We have a future on this planet.
It is not fair to all the living things to be exploited and developed and toxified in the name of profit. That has to change, I'm here to tell you this. We, as indigenous people, are one with nature. We are one with the Earth, to extract and develop and toxify and contaminate the air, the water, and not knowing what the remedies are to correct these things, it needs to be left alone. It needs to be kept in the ground. What is PNM going to do with the ash pile that's piled up there in those regions? How is the water going to be purified? We want answers. We want the air to be clean so we can have rain again. All these need to be stopped, Wall Street needs to wake up and find a way to renewable, sustainable future. Thank you.
Thank you. If not, we do have time for questions. Thank you. Is there any shareholder in attendance that wishes to vote in person? If you would, please raise your hand, and Lisa will bring you a ballot. Lisa, hi. While Lisa's handing those out, as soon as those folks have their ballots and get them in, we'll consider the polls closed, and the inspectors of election will count the ballots. While they're doing that, in the meantime, this is the point in the meeting where I have the opportunity to provide an update on the company. To talk about what we've done over the past year and to look at the challenges and the opportunities ahead. I can't really talk about the progress and success of the company without first giving credit to the employees who get the job done every day. They focus on serving our customers.
They're dedicated, they're committed, because of their character, that's why our company is strong. Because of them, we're leading our communities towards a strong, clean, and very importantly, secure energy future. There's a lot of examples of why I have so much pride and so much faith in our employees, but I have to tell you, none are better examples than the men and women of TNMP, especially those here in the Gulf Coast. That's one of the reasons that it's appropriate and important that we're having our meeting here today. Less than a year ago, Hurricane Harvey struck the Gulf Coast, and it left flooding and devastation. Much of this building that we are in was damaged by flooding. We had water up to about a couple feet on the wall.
Before and after the flooding, this was the room where our crews had their safety and their planning meetings. The homes of many of our folks were damaged. Not only did they take care of their families during that time, they worked to get everybody else back online. Our line crews did all of that with no OSHA recordable injuries. That's quite a credit to their dedication and commitment to safety. Employees across the company looked for ways to help. Many of them donated to the employee assistance fund that helped their colleagues here in Texas.
Despite the fact that our service territory still had some damage and their houses were still damaged, 39 TNMP employees, many of whom are here in the back of the room, volunteered to travel to Florida to assist their colleagues in Florida in the restoration efforts after Hurricane Irma. These actions, to me, are a demonstration of one of our key values in our corporation, and that's caring. To everyone at TNMP and across the company who helped, I'm so proud of your work and what you do to help people, and what you are as people. I want to honor your efforts, and that's one of the reasons we're here today, is to honor and thank you for all of the great work that you have done. It's not just PNM Resources where you see this character and this courage.
It exists in companies across our industry. Following Hurricane Harvey, more than 10,000 workers from 21 states descended on Texas and Louisiana to help the investor-owned utilities and the public power entities. Then, in response to Hurricane Irma, electric companies from across the United States and Canada sent more than 60,000 workers to Florida in one of the largest power restoration efforts in history. Then there was Hurricane Maria that virtually wiped out Puerto Rico's electric grid. When the electric company in Puerto Rico asked for help, at least 3,000 line workers and personnel went down to help in the restoration. Nearly 60 utilities sent crews, equipment, and materials to the effort. In times of crisis, electric companies work beyond the boundaries of their own service territories.
We call this mutual assistance, and I think it's really the hallmark of our industry and one of the things that makes our industry special. Since last June, I was privileged to serve as the chair of the Edison Electric Institute, which is our industry's largest trade organization. As the chair of EEI, you get to pick a couple issues on which you would like to focus and really bring to the attention of the industry. I chose to focus on two things. The first was expanding electric companies' efforts to collaborate with stakeholders to create smarter, more interconnected communities, and secondly, to ensure that our industry increases its focus on diversity and inclusion. These are two topics that are very important on a national level, but they also impact our businesses and our local communities.
When you talk about smart cities, the term means something different to everybody, and none of us like to think we have a dumb city, so I'm not sure I'm totally crazy about the smart community term. What I've been doing is simply working to encourage utilities to reach out to their communities and stakeholders and to show how we can facilitate progress. In the last 11 months, we have nearly every investor-owned utility working with a community in some way to achieve smart community goals. Some of our communities have more than three projects going. I think where we're finding the most success is in moving smart transportation, distributed energy resources, and smart street lighting and electric transportation. There's other companies that are looking for even more ways to leverage their investment.
In New Mexico, PNM is working with the City of Albuquerque to implement electric buses. We're also looking at the possibility of delivering solar energy to some of their city facilities. We're working to upgrade the streetlights to LED, especially important in Albuquerque because unfortunately, Albuquerque's crime is not where we would like it to be. We're also working with local governments to inform them as they think about fleet transitions from either internal combustion engines or natural gas to electric. We're collaborating with the EV industry and vehicle manufacturers to help expand that networking of charging stations across New Mexico. Here in Texas, TNMP has implemented smart meters, and they really help provide customers more information to better manage their energy usage. They have now nearly instantaneous turn on and turn off.
They have very quick outage notification, it helps us get our restoration back on faster. They can go on the web and monitor their consumption in near real time, so they can adjust their energy usage, they can take advantage of time-of-use pricing. There's a lot of change sweeping through the industry, and some of you mentioned it's not limited to new technology, it's not limited to changes in public policy, it's not limited to evolving customer expectations. It also extends to our workforce. We're experiencing turnover due to many factors, but primarily due to the retirement of career employees. The workforce in our industry is one of the oldest average ages of any industry. This presents challenges, obviously, but I also think it gives us a lot of opportunities to show leadership, especially when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
This is critical for us as we build the workforce of the future, it's a priority for us at PNM and TNMP. As we move forward, we need to demonstrate that this is a great place for people when they're entering the workforce or when they're changing careers. We need tech-savvy, innovative individuals who want to work with new technology and also want to make a difference in their communities. You know what that sounds like to me? That sounds like a millennial that may want to go work for Google or Apple or Facebook. What we need to do is say, "Hey, we're as cool as Google or Apple or Facebook because we make a difference in people's lives." Our hope is to continue to attract the best and the brightest, as we always have.
I also like to remind my friends that work in tech that there would be no Google, there would be no Apple, or there would be no Facebook if it wasn't for us, because they need electric power to make all those companies work. At PNM, we have a strong record in diversity, and we also have a strong record of diversity among those with whom we do business. The PNM Resources and Supplier Diversity program encourages the use of diverse suppliers and small business vendors with an emphasis on women, minority, and veteran-owned businesses. Last year alone, we spent $113 million with those types of businesses. Across the company, we're fulfilling our primary responsibility to deliver safe, reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible energy.
New Mexico, that means integrating new technology and cleaner generation resources to meet our customers' energy needs and to respond to a dynamic energy market. In Texas, that means keeping up with the incredible demand for energy and infrastructure because we like to say here in Texas, this economy is growing wildly. There's been a lot of exciting work taking place here in Texas. We continue to see market growth here in Texas, but we're also focused on making improvements to the system to ensure reliability and to support increased transmission needs. We're also on track here, and Mayor's probably not going to want to hear this. We're on track to file a full rate review this month. It's our first rate review that we've filed in Texas since 2011. There's one specific accomplishment among the many that TNMP has that I'd like to point out.
TNMP has a very impressive record when it comes to energy efficiency. Energy efficiency saves money, and it saves energy. Earlier this year, the EPA honored the TNMP High-Performance Homes Program with the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award. TNMP was also recognized for the third straight year as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year and has achieved its energy efficiency goals each year for more than a decade. Neal, congratulations to you and your team. At PNM, we're continuing to work to generate increasingly clean energy, it's important to remember that our industry has relied on varied sources of generation for our mix. We believe a diverse energy mix that combines traditional baseload plants with other clean and renewable energy is the way that we need to ensure that electricity remains safe, reliable, and affordable. Our energy mix is cleaner.
In just 10 years, the mix of resources used to generate electricity has changed dramatically. Today, a third of U.S. electricity comes from zero-emission sources. In addition, natural gas has surpassed coal as the main source of electricity in the U.S. It's the first time that a fuel other than coal has not been the top generator. We've remained focused on ensuring and increasing the awareness of the vital role that 24/7 generation, or what we call baseload sources, includes, including nuclear plays in having a diverse, resilient, and reliable energy mix. By the end of 2016, we don't have the numbers for 2017 yet, the electric industry's carbon dioxide emissions were 25% below 2006. Between 1990 and 2016, NOx was cut by 82% and SOx by 91%. This is while electricity usage grew by 36% in the United States.
Because of the success of the electric industry in moving to cleaner energy resources, the transportation sector is now the biggest source of carbon emissions in the United States. By switching our mass transit and our personal vehicles to electric vehicles, we can make further progress in reducing carbon emissions. At PNM, we've reduced our carbon emissions 40% below 2012 levels. At the end of 2017, we retired 2 of the 4 units at the San Juan Generating Station. Then last July, we filed our Integrated Resource Plan, which sets forth a responsible plan to continue that transition. The plan is for San Juan Generating Station to be fully retired by 2022 and for PNM to exit participation in the Four Corners Power Plant by 2031, which would make our resource portfolio coal-free.
Ultimately, this plan has PNM on track to reduce our carbon emissions by 87% by 2040. By 2030, we expect to achieve a reduction of approximately 60% of CO2 emissions over 2012. This far exceeds the carbon reductions that the United States voluntarily committed to in the Paris Accord, which was designed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2030. The Clean Power Plan, which was how the U.S. was implementing Paris in the power sector, had reduction goals of 28% for the state of New Mexico and 32% for the country. You can see what we have in our plan far exceeds what the Paris Accord asked us to do.
Later this year, we will make a filing with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission regarding our plans for the San Juan Generating Station. There'll be more filings and more process to come as we seek to implement the elements of our resource plan. The eventual retirement of San Juan Generating Station and the Four Corners Power Plant will deliver significant environmental benefits. It's going to also result in significant challenges to the economy of the region and the individuals, the families, and the businesses that depend on these plants. We are the largest payer of property taxes up in the Farmington area. We are acutely aware of the potential consequences of the eventual closure of San Juan and Four Corners. We continue to help work with those communities to find ways to mitigate the economic impact and support the communities in the region, including the Navajo Nation.
To help those workers from the Navajo Nation adapt to the rapidly evolving energy industry and prepare them for a more diverse job market, we worked with the Navajo leadership to create the PNM Navajo Nation Workforce Training Program. We committed a total of $1 million over 5 years to fund scholarships. This is the fifth year of the program, and we've given 570 Navajo students scholarships from the program. To date, 105 students have earned certificates, and 155 students have earned associate's or bachelor's degrees. We understand that the next few years are going to pose continued challenges and opportunities for Four Corners. That's why even though that 5-year training program came to an end, we pledged to commit an additional $50,000 through 2019.
We've given the Four Corners Economic Development over $200,000 since 2012. Over the past 10 years, we have provided more than $4 million in corporation and foundation funding to area communities and nonprofits. We're going to continue to be active and engaged to work with our communities. Supporting vibrant economies in our communities is critical to our shared success. We participate in and support many state and local economic development initiatives. We also work directly with existing and prospective business customers to find solutions to their energy needs. A great example of this is Facebook. Their new data center in New Mexico requires 100% renewable equivalent energy to power the facility.
We worked with Facebook, and we continue to work with them to help secure the renewable resources and the infrastructure necessary to meet Facebook's needs because they still need that connection to PNM's grid so that they get reliable energy 24/7. The project has already boosted the local economy down in Los Lunas. It's provided hundreds of construction jobs and about dozens of permanent positions. It's really helped build some economic momentum for New Mexico. In 2017 alone, we provided support for more than 30 prospective economic development projects. The prospects that we've supported have helped to create hundreds of new jobs. We're going to continue our efforts on economic development.
Beyond the dedication of our employees in terms of focusing on the job they do every day, their generation and their caring is one of the things that's amazing and inspiring to those of us in this industry. I'm always proud of what they accomplish, but this year has been even more amazing. We have a day of service every year, and this year on our day of service, more than 500 employees took part in 48 different activities around Texas and New Mexico. In April, PNM was recognized by the mayor of Albuquerque as the 2018 Volunteer Group of the Year. Volunteerism and community support are really in the DNA of this company and in our industry, and our employees demonstrate year after year ways that help create positive change.
You've heard me talk a lot about our employees, and it's because of them and their amazing work that they do that I'm able to say that PNM Resources is strong and on track to meet our goals. We're leading the way in our communities as we transition to cleaner energy, integrate new technology, and secure the grid, all while we're making sure that reliability is there and affordability is there. Market forces, new technology, and customer demand are really driving this transition at a rapid pace. We need to be more agile and work more closely than ever before with our stakeholders and regulators to enable and empower this. We're going to accomplish this with a commitment to collaboration, transparency, and customer input.
We're going to go ahead and move forward with our plan, which is going to enable us to continue to build value for our customers, our shareholders, our employees, and our communities. What does our plan include? We're leading the transition to cleaner resources, integrating new technology to provide enhanced customer control, benefits, and choice. We're going to keep on effectively managing and responsibly managing our costs to keep energy as affordable as possible. We're going to work to assure appropriate cost recovery for our assets. Those assets were approved by regulators and have provided reliable and affordable energy to customers for decades. This is a really important shared commitment under what's called the Regulatory Compact. I'm proud to say because of our efforts, we were just informed that PNM has been nominated for a Smart Electric Power Alliance Power Players award.
The nomination is in the category of Investor-Owned Utility of the Year, and they're recognizing us for three things. One, streamlining the solar customer interconnection process, bringing renewable energy online to meet customer needs, and for our vision of a coal-free portfolio. Steve Jobs once said, "Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those times we're influencing the future." I think that's certainly true for us at PNM Resources. What we're able to accomplish in the next few years has the potential to benefit our communities and our nation for generations to come. Steve Jobs also said, "Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people." We have a terrific team of people here at PNM Resources, and I'm very proud that I get to lead them on this journey.
Thank you all for your support and your interest in our great company. I will now take any questions for either myself or our external auditors. Please step forward to the microphone, identify yourself, and limit your questions or comments to 3 minutes. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
Thank you very much. My name is Lila June Johnston, as I have mentioned. Thank you very much for this information. I would like to also state that I am of the Nás'Áńízhí Táchii’nii clan of the Diné Nation. We are also incorrectly known as Navajo, but our true name is Diné. I just wanted to make a brief point regarding your speech, which was that the San Juan Generating Station units were closed not to reduce coal emissions, but because they were no longer economically viable for the company. Also, these power plants in the Diné area have actually polluted our communities for decades and decades.
They have caused increased rates of asthma, increased rates of stroke and heart disease, there is a very massive coal ash deposit in our community, which has no lining, which is going to decimate our water source in the area. I believe that PNM has not done a good service to the Diné people. As a friend, as a community member, I would just humbly request from the bottom of my heart to please not talk about how Diné people are treated by PNM as a way of making the company look better because it has actually severely abused my people for many, many decades.
I personally, as humbly as I can, just want to say I do not think it's appropriate to talk about relationships with the Diné people and giving them scholarships so that they can enter into your workforce because a lot of these jobs are dangerous, they're dirty, and they cause a lot of problems for the workers as well. As humbly as I can, I just would like to state that I do not think it's appropriate to brag about what the company has done for Diné people after we have been so thoroughly abused by the company for many, many decades. As humbly as I can, I just could not help but say that. Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you. It'll come down a little.
I'm so short. There. Thank you.
You're welcome.
With your permission.
Yes.
I'm a proxy for Alice Van Hort Van Berton. My name is Kathy Mapole Sanchez here. I was born and raised in San Ildefonso Pueblo, located in the northern parts of New Mexico, and I have lived all my life in my ancestral homelands. I have sovereign personhood in my homelands, and I have human rights as an Indigenous being recognized by the United Nations through this declaration. I'm also a taxpayer in the U.S., as I have citizenship here. The lands of the U.S., redefined after colonial masculines, have stolen parts of North American Indigenous lands. I and my most vulnerable populations have suffered greatly from genocidal practices of colonization. As an Indigenous person, in order to pronounce that word, I would say it as colonization, thinking from the colon of man.
That type of thinking is still very present in today's business as usual. That mentality is expressed in the PNM's Integrated Resource Plan. I have seen your actual most effective portfolio to year 2036 projections, and I have seen it as a continual assault to our most vulnerable life giver of all. Yes, you and all of us live on very limited earth and lands of Mother Earth, and we humans still do not learn, as stated by a wise 19th century Cree elder in our resource statement. Only when the last tree has died, and the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has been caught, will we recognize that we cannot eat money. After reading about your PNM fiscal picture since 2008, which shows rates going up 63%, CEO payments going up 122%, and stocks going up 301%, and profits up 654%, congratulations.
The money blinds the eyes and the hearts of compassionate wisdom. I think the percentage giving is reasonable and not comparable to the profits. Yes, the glutton for money never sees the most vulnerable who lives on shortened lives and grief never ending with death upon death from polluted waters, coal ash badly managed and disposed in unlined pits and mines. We taxpayers see death and smell the stench of decay, toxic waters with yellow slime for clean and drinking. Yes, colonization mind mentality must stop. One of the biggest genocidal practices of coal power plants, oil and gas companies, is keeping the most vulnerable populations in poor health.
Our livelihoods, our means to feed ourselves, much less our ability to even sustain our livestocks, our fields, our crops, are taken from us, and we struggle to see your faces, struggle to see how this nurturing of the old practices of extraction has to change and be transformed. I live near Los Alamos National Laboratory, and that has been, since 1943, the source of nuclear power. I see in your portfolio that you have assets to one of the nuclear power plants, and I see that your interest is to grow in nuclear power, and I would say that that is very toxic. I have seen since my lifetime, I grew up there, is that there is no management plan for the nuclear hazardous waste that's being produced at nuclear plants.
Now the plan is to bring all of the United States' nuclear waste to New Mexico. That is truly unacceptable. It should not be part of your plan, because it is costly, deadly, and inhumane. I know, am I going over? I would also say that it is not safe, it is not renewable, nor does it qualify to be called a source of carbon-free alternative. It is causing death. Do your math, and the lives of your taxpayers look to you to have that wisdom. Speak from your heart, your mind, and your spirit, as I've offered in prayer, to really come together to have that shared equity, the shared wisdom. Believe in your ability to make changes and go forth in that path. Thank you. Good day.
Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Aspen Bio, and I'm a proxy for Anne Lacey.
Good morning.
Burning coal creates disruptive and deadly weather events that not only affect the environment but disrupts the traditions and livelihood of indigenous people. Rather than exploit the lands we live on, we learn how to adapt and nurture it. My people believe that there is a balance between the human and natural realms. Professor Kawagley, a Yup'ik professor from the University of Alaska, said it best, "Earth does not belong to man, but man belongs to Earth." When one forgets or chooses to ignore that concept, they are susceptible to make countless mistakes that could result in destructive and harmful consequences. I appreciate PNM's workers' efforts to help during the hurricane, but you, PNM, must recognize the role in your operations in contributing to one of the deadliest consequences yet, climate change. As a young Native American Pueblo woman, I see damaging effects firsthand.
Our health has been jeopardized for PNM's personal gain. I don't know if your money hunger has made you oblivious to the countless lives you are damaging, but I can tell you that you are forcing generations of families to grow up in contaminated environments. You are making them endure struggles that can be easily dismissed, and you are contributing to the genocide of mind, body, and spirit of my people. Stop these unhealthy practices that you are forcing upon people of color. Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Good morning.
My name is Stephanie Thomas, and I'm here as a proxy for Gabe Locke. I live here in Texas, and I have a couple comments and a question. My first comment is with regards to your discussion on electric vehicles. I wholly support that movement toward electric vehicles, and I'm hoping that at some point, perhaps at the next shareholder meeting, PNM will have a plan about not only powering other electric vehicles, but also looking at its own fleet and looking to see how it can be replacing its fleet with electric vehicles as technology allows. My question is with regard to San Juan. There had been a silo collapse in March, and with the plans to retire the facility in 2022, I'm wondering what are the plans to repair the silo and if that repair makes any sense given the planned retirement of the facility?
Absolutely. Thank you for your question. We do have a plan, and I won't give it to you today, but we are working on transitioning our fleet. We're actually also working on giving employees credits to buy electric vehicles. Couple of us, Lisa has one, I have one. We are working with that, and we'd be happy to share the plan, and we're working on our fleet. Here in Texas, chargers are a competitive business right now, so we can't do chargers in Texas, but we've set up a lot of them in New Mexico. We just cut the ribbon on one in Silver City last week. In terms of the silo collapse at San Juan, we conducted an analysis of the cost of the repair, and the most cost-effective way forward is to go ahead and repair the damaged unit and get it back online.
It should be back online next month. We're covering the repair costs through insurance and through our normal capital and operating budget. We will not have to go to rate payers and ask for more money because we're taking it out of current operating budgets. A decision not to proceed with the repairs on unit 1 would've had some serious contractual and other issues because we have a contract with the coal company to take coal, and we have other owners of that unit who expect the power to come. We're not the sole owner there. We took a very careful look at it, and it made the most sense to repair it, even though we're going to be retiring the plant in 2022.
Who are the other owners of the facility?
Let's see. We have Tucson Electric Power, ourselves, City of Farmington, and Los Alamos.
Can you remind me what PNM's share is in San Juan?
About half. About half the remaining unit.
Okay.
Tucson Electric Power is also the next biggest.
Okay. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Hi again. Wendy Volkman.
Good morning, Wendy.
PNM's Integrated Resource Plan outlines the company's intention to add a lot of gas, which is a dirty fuel, and a little bit of wind and solar down the line, even though wind and solar are cheaper, they don't have fuel costs associated with them, and they won't be stranded assets in 5 to 10 years, and they don't cause the kind of climate change that causes the hurricanes that you had to send so many people to work on. How does PNM factor into its business analysis the cost of stranded assets for fossil generation that cannot compete well with the plummeting source of solar and solar plus storage? Also, does PNM expect that its shareholders will absorb the cost of those stranded assets, or is the company relying on regulators to lay the cost of those stranded assets onto ratepayers?
Thank you for your question. When we look at the Integrated Resource Plan, it does add some solar and some wind, but you're right, it also adds some gas plants. We need the gas plants because we need to get the reliability, because we're still not at the place, right, where the sun shines all the time and the wind blows all the time, and we need those quick starts so when the clouds cover the sun or the wind stops blowing, we still have power. Now we are investigating battery storage, which is kind of the holy grail, which keeps you from having to build gas plants. We put out an RFP for some battery storage, and we will continue to update the IRP. We're actually getting ready to start the next IRP process.
We will continue to look at where technology takes us, but until we're able to get battery storage in economically and at large enough scale to back up the wind and the solar, that's what the gas is for.
The stranded assets, will the shareholders be paying for those, or will the rate payers?
Well, stranded assets are only if you don't need the power plant. That's the reason you go for a CCN. You have a very public process. A CCN, sorry, is a certificate of convenience and necessity. It's a very public process, and then the commission decides whether or not that power plant is needed. If the commission gives you the CCN, the customers take the cost for that asset. That's what I mentioned as the Regulatory Compact. We're a monopoly. The reason we do is because we have to serve everybody. If we weren't a monopoly, there's choice here in Texas. The electric suppliers, we're a distribution company, we have to serve everybody. The competitive pieces, they don't have to serve you. Because we have the obligation to serve everyone, in return for that, we have our CCNs.
Thank you.
You're welcome. Okay, we have about time for one more question. I'll hang around afterwards. You guys. You're the lucky winner.
Thank you. I am Dee Homans, a rate payer from New Mexico and also a shareholder from New Mexico. According to PNM's 2017 draft IRP, in the coming years, nuclear energy will supply roughly one-third of its generation. While it's technically correct to call nuclear energy carbon-free, that's misleading. It implies that it's benign, which it's not. As has been said before, nuclear energy is dangerous and costly, consumes vast amounts of scarce water, and is the ultimate polluter, and no one has yet figured out how to deal with nuclear waste. Given these facts, and given the dramatically falling prices- solar and wind generation, why does the 2017 IRP treat continued reliance on nuclear power as a given in PNM's generation mix?
Couple things on nuclear power plant. As I mentioned, first of all, we still need 24/7 base load power plants. As was just mentioned, wind and solar are not available around the clock yet. When we crack battery storage, and like I said, if I knew when that was going to happen with technology, I'd be gone. I'd be investing in that. We still need those nuclear power plants for that. One of the great things about Palo Verde is that they have an agreement with the city to use gray water, so they don't use any fresh water at Palo Verde. All of their water is recycled water. They have also taken a lot of precautions since Fukushima, even though they are not in an earthquake zone.
Palo Verde is one of the most geologically stable power plants out there, they have been successfully storing waste on-site in the ISFSIs since the plant was open, their waste is still there. We need to continue to rely on nuclear so that we can have that base load. We're shutting down our coal base load. We still need something for base load.
Glad you're shutting down your coal.
I know, and you'd like us to shut down our nuclear too. All right, I will hang around a little bit afterwards for questions, but we do need to end our meeting so the board can get on with their meeting. Mr. Secretary, back to my script here. Okay. Will you please present the report of the inspectors of election?
Madam Chairman, the inspectors of election report that the requisite percentage of shares of common stock represented at the meeting have voted for the approval of the election of the eight director nominees named in the proxy statement to serve as directors until the company's annual meeting of shareholders in 2019. KPMG to serve as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31st, 2018. On an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers known as say on pay. The eight nominees are now duly elected directors. KPMG is duly ratified as our independent registered public accounting firm for the calendar year 2018, and the compensation of our named executive officers is duly approved on an advisory basis.
In addition, Madam Chairman, the inspectors of election report that the requisite percentage of shares of common stock represented at this meeting did not vote for the approval of the two shareholder proposals presented for action at this meeting and described in the proxy statement. The two shareholder proposals were not approved. Madam Chairman, the vote results will be filed with the SEC through an 8-K within four business days of this meeting, this concludes the report, Madam Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your support. Thank you to those of you that traveled here. I'm sorry everybody had crazy dealings in the sky. Thank you to all of our employees. Again, thank you so much for your work. It is because of you that this company is as great as it is. Our meeting is adjourned. The board will reconvene, and I'll hang around for a few minutes if there are any more questions. Thank you all very much.