Hello, welcome to the 2023 annual meeting of stockholders of The Williams Companies, Inc. Please note that links to the company's annual meeting materials, the rules of conduct for this annual meeting, and the company's forward-looking statement cautionary language are available on the meeting portal. Registered stockholders may electronically submit questions at any time during this annual meeting by clicking on the Q&A icon at the top of the meeting portal. Following the business portion of today's annual meeting, the company's CEO, Alan Armstrong, will make a presentation and respond to stockholder questions. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Williams Companies, Inc., Mr. Stephen Bergstrom. Mr. Bergstrom, the floor is yours.
Thank you. The meeting is now convened and will please come to order. I am Steve Bergstrom, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, and will act as the presiding officer of this meeting. I would like to welcome all of you to our third virtual annual meeting. I would now like to introduce to you our Board of Directors. Our current directors, in addition to myself as Chairman of the Board, are Mike Creel, Stacey Doré, Carri Lockhart, Richard Muncrief, Peter Ragauss, Rose Robeson, Scott Sheffield, Murray Smith, Will Spence, Jesse Tyson, and Alan Armstrong, who is also our President and Chief Executive Officer. We will begin with the formal business portion of the meeting, during which the voting on the proposals contained in the company's proxy statement will be conducted.
Following the formal business portion of the meeting, we will transition to the informal portion of the annual meeting. During this portion of the meeting, our CEO, Alan Armstrong, will provide a report on operational and strategic matters. We will then entertain stockholder questions which have been electronically submitted through the meeting portal. To address some meeting administration, I note that Ms. Cheryl Mann will act as Secretary of the meeting and that Mr. Doug Ives of Computershare Trust Company will act as Inspector of Elections for the receipt, validation, and tabulation of proxies and votes. Our Corporate Secretary, Bob Riley, will read the submitted stockholder questions aloud. The Secretary has reported that a meeting quorum is present, and I have received proof in the form of an affidavit of mailing that proper notice of the annual meeting has been given.
In order to conduct an orderly meeting, I ask that you please follow the rules of conduct which are linked on the meeting portal. We will now begin the business portion of the meeting. The first item of business is the election of directors. Do I have a nomination?
Mr. Chairman, I nominate to serve as directors for the ensuing year the entire slate of directors listed in our proxy statement, specifically each of Alan S. Armstrong, Stephen W. Bergstrom, Michael A. Creel, Stacey H. Doré, Carri A. Lockhart, Richard E. Muncrief, Peter A. Ragauss, Rose M. Robeson, Scott D. Sheffield, Murray D. Smith, William H. Spence, and Jesse J. Tyson.
Mr. Chairman, I second the nomination.
I declare that the nominations for directors are now closed. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent public accountants for 2023.
Mr. Chairman, I move that such appointment be approved and ratified.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
The next item of business is to approve on an advisory basis the vote on executive compensation of our named executive officers.
Mr. Chairman, I move that the company's executive compensation of our named executive officers be approved on an advisory basis.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
The last item of business is an advisory vote on the frequency of future advisory votes to approve our named executive compensation.
I move for approval of an advisory vote on executive compensation for named executive officers to be held every year.
I second the motion.
The polls are now open. If you have not already cast your vote, there's a link to vote on the meeting portal. If you previously voted by proxy, you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote. Before proceeding with the meeting, I will wait a few moments for the submission of any votes. I declare that the polls are now closed. The next item of business is the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections. Any votes cast before the polls closed but not reflected in the Inspector of Elections' preliminary report will be reflected in the final report of the Inspector of Elections. I now call on the Inspector of Elections for his preliminary report.
Mr. Chairman, I report that on proposal one, each of the nominees for director received a majority of the votes cast. On proposal two, a majority of the votes cast were voted in favor, thereby ratifying the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent auditors for 2023. On proposal three, a majority of the votes cast were on an advisory basis, voted in favor of the company's executive compensation of named executive officers. On proposal four, a majority of votes were cast in favor of approval of an advisory vote on executive compensation for named executive officers every year.
Based on the Inspector of Elections preliminary report, I now declare the election of each of the nominees as directors of the company. The appointment of Ernst & Young LLP, appointment as the company's independent auditor for 2023 is approved and ratified. That on an advisory basis, the company's executive compensation for named executive officers is approved. The approval of an advisory vote on the frequency of named executive officers compensation to be held every year. Final voting results will be available in Form 8-K, which the company will file with the SEC within four business days. I now declare the business portion of the annual meeting adjourned. We will now proceed with the informal portion of the annual meeting. Before Alan begins his remarks, I would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest director, Carri Lockhart.
It is now my pleasure to introduce to you our company's President and CEO, Mr. Alan Armstrong.
Thanks, Steve. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our 2023 annual meeting of stockholders. We appreciate your continued interest and investment in Williams. I also want to recognize our new Director, Carri Lockhart, who joined the Williams board in February. Carri brings to our board nearly 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, both in the United States and overseas, most recently serving as Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Technology, Digital, and Innovation at Equinor in Oslo, Norway. Carri will serve on our Compensation and Management Development Committee and the Environmental, Health and Safety Committee.
With her appointment, the Williams Board of Directors now consists of 12 members, 11 of whom are independent, and I'm grateful to have such an experienced and diverse group that have demonstrated conviction to a long-term strategy that has enabled our management team to stay focused on executing the strategy in a way that will further deliver long-term sustainable value and growth for our shareholders. This commitment to, and sharp focus on a clear and crisp strategy has established Williams as the midstream leader in making natural gas one of the most important tools in a clean and secure energy economy. Strong demand for natural gas infrastructure drove another outstanding year of financial results as we delivered on our strategy to provide clean and reliable energy services to a growing customer base.
In 2022, our teams moved record volumes of natural gas for electricity generation, heating, and industrial use as consumers took advantage of the economic and environmental benefits of this efficient and abundant energy resource. Our track record of delivering predictable, growing earnings in all market cycles underscores the value of Williams as a resilient, long-term investment with a growing dividend. We've built a durable business positioned for the future, and we're leveraging our existing infrastructure to serve rising domestic and global energy security needs while lowering emissions and creating sustainable value for our shareholders. In addition to remarkable business performance in 2022, we also made three strategic acquisitions that bolster our ability to deliver growth through a variety of macroeconomic conditions.
We significantly expanded our network by adding the NorTex storage system and Trace Midstream's Haynesville assets, a key link in our Gulf Coast LNG export strategy. Additionally, this past February, we closed on the large-scale MountainWest Pipeline system, which serves the fast-growing mountain states of Utah, Colorado, and Western Wyoming with fully contracted demand-based gas transmission and storage services. Williams now handles approximately one-third of U.S.-produced natural gas with more than 33,000 mi of infrastructure, drawing on production from 14 basins and delivering to the largest demand centers on the Gulf Coast, all across the South, the Eastern Seaboard, the Northeast, the Western Mountain State, as well as the Pacific Northwest. We are expanding our natural gas storage portfolio to capture price fluctuations and to support varying loads of LNG exports and the pipeline capacity needed to back up the full electrification loads when renewables are not producing.
These investments, along with a slate of high return projects along our existing infrastructure, give us a clear path to significant growth both now and well into the future. Our people, asset footprint, and ability to successfully adapt as a business over the last 115 years has established a strong culture at Williams of embracing change for the opportunities it offers. I'm excited to see how our employees today and our leadership are more motivated than ever to tackle challenges around energy security, affordability, and climate concerns. To executing a multi-year asset monetization program across our footprint, we are investing in New Energy Ventures and expanding team that is focused on commercializing innovative technologies, markets, and business models, including next-gen gas, clean hydrogen, carbon capture, solar and renewable natural gas.
New Energy Ventures collaborates across our core natural gas business to evaluate and implement clean energy solutions where we have competitive advantages that enable economic returns from these smaller scale investments. As one of the largest infrastructure companies spanning the United States, we are committed to continually improving our understanding of the priorities of the people our business touches, while building long-term relationships with landowners and other stakeholders. Williams employees volunteered more than 20,000 hours in 2022 to improve their communities. We also invested more than $13.8 million in corporate stewardship alongside our employees' efforts across our entire operating footprint. Our employees are also impassioned about the work they do to support sustainable business operations and transparency.
Last year, Williams once again earned recognition across several key ESG rankings, including the CDP Climate Change Questionnaire, the S&P Global ESG Score, and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Williams was named for the third consecutive year to the DJSI North America Index and for the second consecutive year to the DJSI World Index. You've heard me say it many times before. I'll say it again, natural gas is the most effective tool available to decarbonize society's energy demands, driven by economics and not government subsidies or intervention. Shifting from coal to natural gas to generate electricity in the U.S. has significantly reduced emissions since 2005, in fact, the equivalent of removing nearly every gasoline-powered car off the road today. In fact, it reduced more emissions from our power generation sector than all the renewable investments to date combined.
What we're seeing today as concerns around Climate and energy security converged, natural gas and the infrastructure that moves it are necessary to meet growing demand for clean energy, backstop intermittent renewables, and support the build-out of electrification. Expanding our natural gas infrastructure will give more Americans greater access to low-cost, low-carbon and reliable natural gas at home, and even beyond that, will support other critical industrial users. First, by helping spur the tremendous amount of growth that's going on as the rebirth of manufacturing occurs here in our country that's driven by low-cost natural gas. Secondly, by providing stability for the U.S. agriculture industry's massive demand for reliable, affordable energy for operations and fertilizer. This is a really great time for Williams, and we are well-positioned as a leader in the evolving energy landscape.
I want to commend our leadership team for their commitment to being the very best in the space and for leading Williams through such a dynamic time in our industry. I also wanna express my gratitude to our employee base, who continues to safely and successfully deliver on our goal of being the best-in-class operator of the critical infrastructure that is fueling our clean energy future. With that, I wanna thank you, the shareholders, on behalf of the entire Williams organization for your continued trust and investment in Williams. Thank you.
At this time, we will entertain stockholders' questions electronically submitted through the meeting portal. As a reminder, to ask a question, please click on the Q&A icon at the top of the meeting portal. Mr. Chairman, at this time, we've not received any questions from stockholders.
Very well. Our 2023 annual meeting of stockholders is now concluded. Thank you for attending and for your continued support of the company.
Thank you. This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.