Morning, everyone, welcome to the 2019 Xcel Energy Annual Shareholders Meeting. We're delighted to be here in Pueblo, and have thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of days in the community. It's great to be here in Colorado with the spectacular Rocky Mountains as a backdrop. This is the first time we've held our annual meeting here in Pueblo, and I appreciate the warm welcome you've shown us. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend time at City Hall with Mayor Nick Gradisar, City Council President Nick Flores, County Commissioners Garrison Ortiz, Terry Hart, and Chris Wiseman, as well as members of the Pueblo Economic Development Corporation board. It's our honor today to have Mayor Gradisar with us, and we'd like to turn the microphone over to the mayor for a welcome.
Thank you. I want to read this proclamation. The City of Pueblo, Colorado Mayoral Proclamation, Xcel Energy Day, May 15th, 2019. Whereas Xcel Energy is leading the clean energy transition to renewable energy sources and its corresponding economic development. Whereas Xcel Energy is committed to the great State of Colorado, investing in our communities and in the energy infrastructure to provide customers with safe and reliable natural gas and electricity service. Whereas Xcel Energy and the City of Pueblo have long enjoyed a collaborative relationship. Whereas Xcel Energy is a key employer in the Pueblo area, providing good jobs for residents at the Pueblo Service Center and Comanche Generating Station. Whereas Xcel Energy is the electric service provider to Evraz at the heart of the Steel City, as well as the gas service provider for the Pueblo community.
Whereas Xcel Energy is an active partner within the Pueblo community, supporting numerous nonprofit organizations that improve the lives of our residents. Whereas Pueblo is honored to welcome the Xcel Energy Board of Directors as we play host to the 2019 Annual Shareholder Meeting. Therefore, be it resolved that I, Mayor Nick Gradisar, do hereby proclaim May 15th, 2019 as Xcel Energy Day in the great city of Pueblo, Colorado. Welcome.
Well, thank you so much, Mayor. We appreciate the proclamation and the time we were able to spend with you and other community leaders yesterday. For the past decade, we've taken our annual shareholders meeting on the road to communities across our service territory. Our entire team enjoys the opportunity to spend time in these communities, to engage with local leaders, connect with customers, meet with our employees, and visit with fellow shareholders. It drives home the important role that energy plays in our communities and reminds us of the tremendous responsibility we have to deliver that service well and highlights our partnerships that build even stronger economies. We recognize that our success is tied to the success of those we serve, our communities, and our customers. Vibrant, growing communities support our business growth, while reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean energy powers these local economies.
It's fitting that we're holding this meeting here in Pueblo where the transition to a cleaner energy transition is well underway. The towers that support our giant wind turbines are made by Vestas right here in this community. Pueblo is also the home to Comanche Solar Project, one of the largest solar farms east of the Rockies, and we've just signed an agreement with Pueblo County to help them achieve their renewable energy goals through our Partners in Energy program. Of course, our dedicated employees at the Comanche Power Plant here in town have produced electricity for Coloradans for decades. As most of you know, we are retiring two of the Comanche coal units in the next six years, one at the end of 2022 and the other at the end of 2025.
These retirements are part of our Colorado Energy Plan, a transformative effort that delivers on our clean energy vision, keeps energy affordable and reliable, and stimulates economic development. This plan receives significant support from across the state, including right here in Pueblo County. It represents significant change. We are taking a thoughtful and collaborative approach to ensure a successful transition for our communities and our employees. You'll be hearing more about these efforts later in my remarks. Once again, thank you for your hospitality. We're so pleased to be here in Pueblo and plan to serve Colorado for many years to come. With that, let's move on to the business at hand. On stage with me are Judy Pofahl , our Corporate Secretary, Bob Frenzel, our Chief Financial Officer, and Scott Wilensky, our General Counsel.
Under Xcel Energy's bylaws, the items considered at this meeting are limited to those included in the notice you received. We will not add any new items to the agenda. Judy will conduct the formal portion of today's meeting. There are three proposals on our business agenda that were listed in the proxy statement. The polls are now open for voting on these matters. Once the business meeting concludes, I'll share my perspective about our 2018 performance and our plans for the future. After that, you'll have the opportunity to ask some questions. Our meeting will adjourn no later than noon. Before proceeding to the business meeting, I'd like to make a few other introductions, starting with the Xcel Energy Board of Directors.
This is a talented and committed board and one that takes its responsibilities seriously. Our board ensures that strong governance starts with high ethical standards and provides oversight to our strategy that creates long-term value. I will ask each director to stand and remain standing until all have been introduced. Please hold your applause until after I name the last director. Let's start with our newest board member, Lynn Casey, Chair of Padilla. Next we have Richard Davis, President and CEO of Make-A-Wish Foundation. Richard is also the recently retired Executive Chairman of U.S. Bancorp. Richard O'Brien, independent consultant and former President and CEO of Boart Longyear Limited. David Owens, retired executive, Edison Electric Institute. Chris Policinski, retired President and CEO of Land O'Lakes, Inc., who also serves as our Lead Independent Director. Jim Prokopanko, retired President and CEO of The Mosaic Company.
Pat Samson, CEO, President and owner of The Samson Group. David Westerlund, retired Executive Vice President of Administration and Corporate Secretary of Ball Corp. Tim Wolf, retired partner at Wellington Management Company, LLP. Tim Wolf, President of Wolf Interests, Inc. Daniel Yohannes, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Joe Shepherd, independent consultant and former Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer at Southern California Edison. Joe was unable to join us today, and he sends his regrets. Please acknowledge the board with your applause. Deloitte is the independent accountant engaged to audit Xcel Energy's financial statements. Representing their organization today are Chris Lee and Judy Dockendorf. Chris and Judy, would you please stand? Also with us today is Chris Brown, President of Vestas Americas, which operates a wind turbine manufacturing right here in Pueblo.
Vestas is an important partner as we deploy more wind energy, we're delighted to have Chris with us today. Chris, could you stand? I'm hoping we have some Xcel Energy retirees here in attendance. Anybody a retiree, raise your hand. I see one. Thank you for your service and thanks for being here today. We'll now proceed with the formal business portion of the meeting, which will be conducted by our corporate secretary, Judy Pofahl. Judy?
Thank you, Ben. Good morning, everyone. Let me start with a few procedural matters. As noted in the proxy statement, the record date for voting at this meeting was the close of business on March 21st, 2019. As of that date, there were 514,666,986 shares of common stock outstanding. Each share has one vote. A list of our registered shareholders on the record date is available in the back of the room for your review. More than 86% of the shares of our common stock is present by proxy at this meeting, we do have a quorum. If you've already voted your proxy, your votes will be cast as you've instructed. There's no need for you to vote by ballot today unless you want to change your vote.
If you have not voted by proxy yet or would like to change your vote, please raise your hand at this time and a ballot will be brought to you.
There's one right here.
Oh, one? There. Okay, thank you. Peggy Saine from McQuinnity is our Inspector of Election. Peggy will bring you the ballot. Thank you. There are three proposals that will be voted on today, the details of which were provided in the proxy statement. Proposal number one is the election of 13 directors to one year's terms. The names of the nominees who Ben just introduced are listed in the proxy statement and are on the screen. Proposal number two seeks approval on an advisory basis for our executive compensation. Proposal number three seeks approval of the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as Xcel Energy Inc.'s independent registered public accounting firm for 2019. Now, we'd like to gather the ballots that were cast here today. Not to put you under any pressure. Are we okay? Okay. Peggy will collect that from you. Okay.
With that, I now declare the polls closed. Thank you very much. Official results, which will include the ballot cast at this meeting, will be disclosed in an 8-K filing and posted on the Xcel Energy website. Meanwhile, the Inspector of Elections has provided us a preliminary result that shows that all director nominees were elected and all management proposals were approved. The formal business portion of this meeting is now officially adjourned. In a couple of minutes, Ben will discuss the company's 2018 performance and our industry-leading carbon-free vision. Following his remarks, members of the audience will have the opportunity to share a comment or to ask a question. Please limit your remarks to three minutes so that others can have a turn. Thank you for following the rules of this business meeting. Let me also remind you that we may make some forward-looking statements during this meeting.
You should refer to our SEC filings for the risk factors related to our business. We may also refer to non-GAAP measures during this presentation. The nearest GAAP measure and reconciliation to the non-GAAP measure can be found in our 2018 year-end earnings release that's located on the investor relation page of our website. As Ben mentioned, we're very happy to be here in Pueblo. It gives us a great opportunity to celebrate our commitment to the communities we serve and to share our plans for an exciting future. I think you'll get a feel for that in the short video that you're about to see. Ben will be back to share his perspective. Thank you.
I think that video really brings to light Xcel Energy's journey. The theme, Building the Future, highlights our thoughtful yet rapid transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. We're proud to lead the industry change while enhancing reliability and ensuring affordability for all of our customers. Most of my remarks will focus on the clean energy transition, but let me start by discussing our financial performance where, once again, we delivered for you, our shareholders. We reported 2018 GAAP and ongoing earnings of $2.47 per share at the top end of our original guidance range, compared to 2017 GAAP earnings of $2.25 per share and ongoing earnings of $2.30 per share. Let me provide a few other financial highlights. 2018 marked the 14th consecutive year that we met or exceeded our earnings guidance. Since 2005, we've achieved an annual earnings growth rate of 6.1%.
We've increased our dividend by 5.6%, marking the 15th consecutive year of dividend growth, and we expect our dividend to grow by 5%-7%, and we increased our long-term EPS growth rate to that same target, signaling our confidence in 2019 and beyond. Our three-year total shareholder return was just over 51%, which easily outpaced our peer group average of just under 35%. In December, our stock reached an all-time high of $53.68, and I'm pleased to say it's even higher today. In fact, Monday, we hit a new all-time high of $57.78. We're optimistic about the future and have reaffirmed our 2019 earnings guidance range of $2.55-$2.65 per share. The year is off to a strong start with first quarter earnings at $0.61 per share, exceeding last year's results and meeting analyst expectations.
While we know the importance of delivering on our annual results, we've also taken a disciplined approach to planning for the future. Our growth initiatives over the next five years call for $20 billion in capital investments that will deliver tremendous values for shareholders while providing the clean and affordable energy our customers want and need. We apply a thoughtful approach to our business, and we align our work around three strategic priorities: leading the clean energy transition, enhancing the customer experience, and keeping bills low. Let me spend a little time talking to you about each of those priorities and how they work together to deliver value for our customers, our communities, and our shareholders. In December, Xcel Energy became the nation's first energy company to announce a goal to produce 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050.
We also set an interim goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2030. I believe this bold vision is achievable. Over the last 15 years, we've demonstrated the ability to move from fossil fuels to clean energy sources while keeping prices affordable and service reliable. That's important because those are the outcomes our customers and communities want. Continued advancements in renewable energy have improved performance and lowered prices. In just the last three years, wind energy pricing has come down almost 25%, and universal solar prices have dropped by a third. Since 2005, we've invested $3.4 billion to build wind farms to serve our customers and have an additional $3.7 billion of forecasted wind investments over the next three years. Our wind portfolio, with nearly 7,300 megawatts in service, is the second largest in the country among utilities and accounts for about 8% of the nation's total wind capacity.
This move from fossil fuels to low-cost renewables has reduced carbon emissions associated with serving our customers by nearly 40%. Through our Steel for Fuel growth strategy, we expect to have over 10,000 megawatts of wind on our system by 2021. Today, we have 12 wind farms at various stages of development across our service territory. Our Cheyenne Ridge Wind Farm, part of the Colorado Energy Plan proposal, received verbal approval last month, and in Texas, our Hale Wind Farm is slated to go in service in June. Collectively, these wind projects bring us much closer to our carbon reduction targets. Just as important, they create real savings for our customers. Our wind expansion is expected to save customers $ hundreds of millions over the lives of these projects.
We can invest in infrastructure, the steel of our wind turbines, the cost is more than offset by the fuel savings from not burning fossil fuels. Hence the name we coined for this strategy, Steel for Fuel. By next year, renewables will be our largest source of energy, and they will only grow from there. A responsible clean energy strategy requires diligence when it comes to reliability and affordability. Clean, reliable, and affordable must all work in concert to be effective. The ultimate goal is that we reduce carbon emissions as quickly as possible while maintaining outstanding reliability and unwavering affordability. Going forward, renewable energy, along with other innovations like battery storage and demand-side management, will play important roles, we need other energy sources too.
For example, our nuclear plants are critical to achieving our aggressive carbon reduction targets, natural gas will serve an important role as a bridge fuel. Today, the nation's nuclear fleet provides almost 20% of the country's energy, but it accounts for nearly 55% of the carbon-free energy. Let's not discount the role of natural gas as we move away from coal. Gas has half the carbon content of coal, it can be used to back up wind and solar energy. Both nuclear and natural gas offer important grid health attributes and need to be part of the solution. We've come such a long way in our clean energy journey, we've gotten there by making sure we do the transition right. With plant closures comes the potential loss of jobs and tax revenue base that our employees and our communities rely on.
That's why partnering with stakeholders is critical and why we spend so much time on it. A cornerstone of that work has been to prepare our employees and our communities for change. For example, we share our long-range plans with employees years in advance to provide ample time to seek retraining and to look for other positions within the company. We also put natural attrition to work for us, as many long-term employees are expected to retire in the next few years. For our host communities, we pledge extra support to drive economic development. Becker, Minnesota is a really good example. There we have received approval to build a natural gas plant at the site to offset the early retirement of two of our Sherco coal units. Using the same location will maintain local tax base, retain some jobs, keep costs down for everyone.
Beyond that, we've partnered with local leaders to seek new business for the community. Last year, we successfully attracted a company, Northern Metals, to locate a new recycling plant on our property adjacent to the Sherco site. Earlier this year, Google announced plans to build a large data center in the area. We've got a similar story right here in Pueblo with upcoming retirements with two of the units at Comanche. It was critical that we work with Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel to ensure that we could meet its energy needs and long-term sustainability goals. Had the opportunity yesterday to meet with General Manager Ben Fowke, and we discussed our new long-term agreement that will keep Evraz in Pueblo for decades to come. As I mentioned, our carbon reduction goals are the most progressive in the country.
Just as it is important to listen to scientists about climate risk, it's just as important to listen to engineers about reliability. Our engineers believe that while it won't be easy, we can reach our 2030 target using existing technologies. To be 100% carbon-free by 2050, we'll need some new technologies. I'm a firm believer that we need to be technology agnostic when it comes to reaching that carbon-free target because we must be open to all options. That includes the next generation of nuclear, could include carbon capture, long-term battery storage, new ways to help customers save energy, and maybe even some technologies that haven't been invented yet. Given the rapid rate of technology change, I'm confident that with support from policymakers, we can be carbon-free by 2050 while keeping our product reliable and affordable.
Just as we're investing in the clean energy transition, we're also enhancing the customer experience. One of the best examples is right here in Colorado, where we are making a $600 million investment in the advanced grid that will strengthen reliability, support new service offerings, and help customers better manage their energy use and lower their bills. Within the next year, we expect to begin installing smart meters that take advantage of two-way digital technology. Now, this will give us real-time information so we can isolate outages when severe weather damages the grid, and in some cases, automatically reroute power to shorten or prevent outages. The advanced grid will allow us to put more renewable energy onto our system and will give us important insights for developing new pricing plans. Customers will see their energy usage in almost real time, helping them to better manage their monthly bills.
While the advanced grid will allow us to better serve our customers, we fully understand the need to protect our customer data, cybersecurity will be a key component of our work. Now that the advanced grid is moving forward in Colorado, expect us to file similar plans in Minnesota later this year. Our regulators have also supported our efforts to help our customers meet their own sustainability goals. Our Renewable*Connect program offers the opportunity for customers to receive up to 100% certified renewable energy, we must be onto something because that program has sold out in record time in both Colorado and Minnesota, and we now have a similar program available in Wisconsin. As we work to serve our customers better, they are increasingly looking for us to help them with their transportation choices as well.
We're piloting an electric vehicle program in Minnesota that provides charging equipment at the home and in the community, along with opportunities for companies to convert their fleets to EVs. More and more customers are buying EVs every day, and we're working hard to make those experiences as seamless as possible. They can save money and help the environment by doing so. Charging a vehicle today with our electricity will cost you the equivalent of about $1 per gallon of gasoline, and it reduces your carbon emissions by 70%. As our product becomes greener and cleaner, that number will increase to up to 90% by 2030. I'm excited that the Minnesota Commission recently improved a $25 million investment to expand these programs. We're applying the lessons learned from this pilot to develop programs in other states.
Bringing our clean energy to the transportation sector is a huge growth opportunity for us, and we are ready to serve. I believe it's more important than ever to not just satisfy your customers, but to delight your customers. Look for us to invest in new technologies and form new partnerships, not only to enhance the customer experience, but to deliver on our third strategic priority, which is keeping bills low. For the last decade, our average residential electric bill has been about 25% lower than the national average. By focusing on continuous improvement ideas generated by employees, we achieved $59 million in cost savings last year. A great example comes from our nuclear team, which has reduced expenses by over $40 million over the last three years while operating the plants better than ever.
They developed a new fuel design that significantly reduces the fuel used to operate the plant and extends the time between refueling outages by about six months. That change will save $4 million-$5 million per year in fuel and save $70 million over the next 15 years by eliminating the need for two refueling outages. The best ideas are those that can be leveraged across many areas of our business. Our drone program does just that. Drones improve safety, save time and money, and have endless possibilities across our business. I'd like to show you a short video now that highlights our drone program. We plan to expand our drone inspection program to other states later this year. You can see that we have many efforts underway to lead the clean energy transition, enhance our customer experience, and keep bills low. We cannot do it alone.
We need supportive public policy. One of the advantages of leading the clean energy transition is that we have that seat at the table as public policy is being shaped. This is critical, because we need public policy to support the most cost-effective technologies. If they don't, reliability or affordability may suffer, maybe even both, and we want to serve our customers the best way possible. Our company roots date back more than a century and are intertwined with the communities we serve. We take that responsibility seriously because we know the vital role energy plays in our society. Communities rely on us to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable energy, but also to drive economic development and provide support.
Yesterday, we had a chance to demonstrate that support right here in Pueblo, when we delivered contributions through the Xcel Energy Foundation to two organizations that do really great work. We provided a $20,000 grant to support the Pueblo City-County Library District to fund a traveling exhibit that documents how energy helped to drive the steel energy in Pueblo, and a $50,000 grant to the Pueblo Community College to help fund a solar lab faculty position to help students learn more about renewable energy. While our financial support is always needed and welcome, what struck me was how much these and other organizations appreciate our employees for their volunteer efforts. As I've said many times before, we have outstanding employees, I think the best in the business. Xcel Energy's success is fueled by employees who always deliver.
Our team contributes nearly 90,000 volunteer hours a year, and coupled with our foundation match, donates over $6 million to nonprofit organizations that are important to them. Our team comes to work energized to serve you, driven by a passion to do the job well. I'm so proud that many of our employees are military veterans who bring the right stuff to the workplace. Last year, 10% of our external hires were veterans, and right here in Colorado, more than 350 members of our team are veterans. We really do have outstanding employees, and we have an outstanding leadership team as well. I'd like to introduce some of them right now, including members of our executive team. As I call your name, please stand and remain standing. In addition to Judy and Bob and Scott, we have Brett Carter, our Chief Customer and Innovation Officer.
David Eves, our Group Utilities President, who's responsible for our four operating companies. Darla Figoli, our Chief Human Resources Officer. Kent Larson, who oversees electric and natural gas operations across our eight states. Tim O'Connor, our Chief Nuclear Officer. Frank Prager, our Vice President of Policy and Federal Affairs. We also have two of our four Operating Company Presidents with us today as well. Mark Stoering, who leads our operations in Wisconsin and Michigan, and Alice Jackson, the President of Xcel Energy - Colorado. I'm proud to lead this team, and you can rest assured that they're working hard to keep Xcel Energy strong and successful. Let's give them a round of applause. I'd now like to hear your questions, but before I do, let me briefly review the procedure. There are two microphones, one in each aisle.
Please speak into the microphone so that everybody can hear your question, and we'll take one question per shareholder at a time. Please limit your question or comments to three minutes. If you have a customer-related question, see Pat Bolan. Pat, can you please stand? Darla Figoli can answer any employee questions and will be happy to speak to you after the meeting. Individuals seated at the shareholder table in the lobby can handle any additional shareholder services questions you may have as well after the meeting. Please wait to be recognized. Let us know your name, whether or not you're a shareholder, before you begin. With that, let's get started. We'll recognize microphone two.
Thank you. I'm Rod Slyhoff. I'm the president of the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce. Nice to see you, Alice. I just wanted to take just a few minutes, first of all, to thank Xcel for being here for your annual shareholders meeting in Pueblo. We're extremely honored. I represent about 870 businesses here in Pueblo, and I can assure you that they all value the relationship that we've had over the years with Xcel Energy. I just wanted to make a couple comments about how I appreciated, and my board of directors appreciated, the efforts that Xcel extended when the discussions started about the closure of Comanche 1 and 2. We started those discussions, now I'm thinking almost three and a half years ago. We appreciated that as we were able to transition and prepare for all of those things.
Just personally, and I say this jokingly, I'm losing a very good employee because of those transitions, because her husband's going to move to the Denver area. That's okay. I'll survive. Anyway, our members, the members I represent, and the businesses, I think, in Colorado and generally, we really appreciate your foresight in our environment and being a lead in preserving that. Because without a good, clean environment for us to do business in, it's very hard to do that. Our customers, including those businesses that are your customers as well, appreciate the care that your employees and your leadership has had as they've had to make transitions and work with them so that they have a very limited loss of business when they're going through those changes that we almost do to stay relevant. The affordability. Everybody has to make a profit.
Congratulations on your guys' success that you announced with your stocks, all of our businesses have to be in that position too, and you're an important part of helping them be affordable. Thank you very much for what you do. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Xcel, I would just say to you that we're proud of what you have invested in Pueblo, what you still have here in Pueblo, we have a lot of room for more. Keep us in mind. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We appreciate those comments. I'll just tell you, we know, you've heard me say it before, we're not strong unless our communities are strong. We understand a clean energy transition's the right thing to do, we also understand it disrupts employees and communities. I'm really proud of our community representatives and how they've worked with communities to smooth that as much as we possibly can as we make this transition. I will tell you, it's been a little while since I've been to Pueblo. The amount of change for the good here is truly remarkable. The city and the community leaders are doing a tremendous job, we thank you too. Thank you. I'll recognize microphone one.
Thank you very much. I'm Paula McPheeters, Director of Fund Development and Campaign for United Way of Pueblo County, I appreciate the chance to speak with you this morning for just a little bit. When I look back on the relationship between Xcel and United Way of Pueblo County, it's clear that you folks have made a commitment to the entire scope of benefiting our community, not just United Way as such. That's very telling that the strong among you have committed to helping the most vulnerable among us all. It's a huge deal to us. Having now completed my second Xcel United Way campaign in this position, I fully appreciate the larger picture of support that Xcel has offered to United Way and to our community, from representatives on our board of trustees, to sponsorships of events.
These don't immediately come to mind for most people, but for us, it's a big deal. It assists us in our governance, but it also keeps us in the public eye. We deeply appreciate those tangential things to many people, but not necessarily for us. The amazing special events and incentives that you provide to your employees that keep us before them and give us a chance to express their philanthropy. On the purely financial side of the campaign, though, I have done some research on the numbers, that's why I have the paper here today. In the past six years, Xcel employee retiree and corporate giving to the community through United Way has totaled $1,005,102.96.
Nice.
Which is incredible. Each year, the number of patron givers, those donors whose gifts are individually $1,000 or more, are larger than any other organization in our campaigns.
Even nicer.
This year, 32 Xcel employees set aside $1,000 or more each in payroll deductions. Wow. I'm seriously shaking.
See, you're making an impact.
I know. Those were donated to the work of United Way of Pueblo County. As donors of a certain vintage, and I timidly raise my hand there, approach their retirement and what are usually years of decreased giving, Xcel continues to bring on a new and younger generation of donors. That's a big deal, too. Every community desperately needs engaged and caring individuals who will step forward and love the place they live and work. We are so grateful to Xcel for the vital role you play in strengthening our community in those ways. Thank you again very much.
Well, thank you, Paula. Thank you. Again, I'm always amazed at how our employees open up their wallets and their hearts. We talked a little bit at the reception yesterday about the day of service when they come out and help build some of the infrastructure, not only for all the different charities that your organization supports. I do hope the new generation recognizes the value of United Way. It's a great place to know your dollars are being put in the right spot. We work hard to get that message out. Thank you for the good work you do. Yes. We'll go back to microphone one.
Good morning, it's a great pleasure to welcome so many men and women from Xcel. We had a great time last night. My name is Jim Richardson, and I have the honor and privilege of being the CEO of the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center. It's fabulous to have so many of you there last night and to have a chance to speak with some of you. It's been invigorating for me to see this particular presentation because, of course, as an art center, we're all about creativity and innovation. Certainly, one of my mantras is the future's not about how cheap things are going to be or how quickly we make things, but where the ideas are going to come from to solve the problems. It's really cool to see what you're doing and what you're up to.
More specifically, I would like to talk about Xcel as a community partner. At the Arts Center, we certainly face a number of challenges, and Xcel funding helps us in four specific areas. One of those areas is a scholarship program that we have called 3-2-1 Going Back to School. It's really a program focused on five-year-olds to prepare them to go to school. One of the things that we were approached with by the local school district about four years ago is how unprepared our young children are in going to school. The 3-2-1 program has really been critical, and that serves about 500 children a year now. We're really pleased to do that because, of course, where are the people that are going to work at Xcel and other places going to come from, but from our school place.
We're very happy about that. Another challenge in our community is financial assistance that we provide to low-income students for our Friday Arts Academy. Our two local school districts here are four-day-a-week school systems, the kids don't have school on Friday, and a number of partners have stepped up, like the Arts Center and the Boys & Girls Club, to create cool stuff to do on Fridays. Thank you for helping us there. Another thing, we have done a lot more at the Arts Center about music education, and Xcel funding has helped us buy more musical instruments for the children. Finally, sponsorship of Art Start, which is a Wednesday morning program where we have two, three, and four-year-olds come to our wonderful children's museum to have that sort of experience and to really learn the Arts Center is for everyone and really cool.
From my board and over 2,000 members of the Arts Center, a huge thank you for what you provide in this community, I salute your vision in the future, especially about clean energy. Very exciting for everyone. Thank you.
Thank you, Jim. For some of you in the room, we had a really nice community reception at the White Gallery at the center. If you haven't been there, I encourage you to go there. The artwork was really very interesting, and I found some of it very moving. You do a great job, and we're happy to support. Thank you. Recognize the microphone one there.
I am not a shareholder today, but because of your leadership, because of the direction that you've taken Xcel, because of what I've seen today, tomorrow, I will be.
Great.
Thank you. I wanted to also, even though you've taken this great step, you've begun to define the future for Xcel and also provide leadership within the industry. I'm going to encourage you to look at another step that you might be wanting to take. I want you to begin to consider embracing energy competition in the marketplace. When I first came to Colorado, Mountain Bell was the only place that I could get phone service from, 1970s. Mountain Bell is not to be found. Technology changes, customer preferences, all changed the environment in which a one-time monopoly thrived, now ceases to exist. I would encourage you to begin to look at positioning Xcel in a competitive marketplace, not regionally bound, using the leadership that you've already provided to consider competing in the energy marketplace in a non-monopoly environment. The people of Colorado granted a monopoly.
The people of Colorado can also remove that grant. Beginning to position yourself now for a competitive environment will give you an advantage. You already have an advantage. Leadership, name recognition here in Colorado. I would encourage you to begin to position the company for a competitive marketplace. Thank you.
It's Steve, right? Thank you, Steve, for those comments. I fully agree that if we're going to stay regulated, we need to think competitively. That's why when you saw our strategic priorities, it's leading to clean energy transition, it's enhancing the customer experience. We know that our customers don't rate us against Comcast. They look and see what an Uber and even a Pizza Hut can do when it comes to delivering your pizza, and we need to keep up with that. I fully agree with that. The final thing, as you might recall, was keeping our bills low. We are seeing competition. It's the reason why through innovation, our rates are actually total bills are 9% lower today here in Colorado than they were five years ago.
We understand that we need to keep bringing technology in so that our customers want us to be the provider, because increasingly they are getting choice. Now, one of the things we have to make sure of is when we talk about choice, we compare things apples to apples. Sometimes it's apples to oranges. Of course, renewables are getting less expensive today than they were 10 years ago by a significant amount. Doesn't mean we shouldn't have had those renewables 10 years ago. I take your comments, and I believe that it's going to be really important. Never confuse customer loyalty with captivity, and that's why we are really keenly focused on doing more for our customers than ever before. Thank you. Any other questions? Microphone two.
Morning, board and members of the management team. Thank you. My name is Leslie Glustrom, and I know many of you and appreciate the opportunity to be here again. The board members have a packet of materials, and if anybody else wants a packet. I'm a mother. I'm really concerned about the future, and I'm also a biochemist, so I have a profound appreciation for this miracle of life on the planet, and that has led me to, again, a profound concern about climate change. As Xcel knows, I'm just beyond thrilled, front pages. Thank you, Xcel. Beyond thrilled with the leadership that's being shown by Mr. Fowke, by all the management team, by the board, leading the clean energy transition. I'm going to try to get through this without crying. I can't tell you how grateful I am.
Leslie, don't you start crying because I don't want to start crying.
You're very kind. I'll try not to, I am profoundly grateful and really for everyone on the planet, because a planet that's in chaos is a planet that doesn't function. That's the trajectory we're on now for our children and our grandchildren and on down. Thank you ever so much for your leadership. I am hoping that the board will help carry this message to all of your companies and your contacts. The leadership that you're seeing from a company that not long ago was sort of 80, 90% dependent on coal, they've now said, "We're going to keep the lights on in Denver and Minneapolis and every other place.
We're going to do it by lowering our carbon dramatically, being on track for about a one and a half degree C warming, which is still way too much, it's about the best we can do at this point." This is leadership, that's why I would cry, I don't want to waste all three minutes crying. Thank you ever so much. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Chairman Fowke has, I believe, really provided so much of this leadership. The rest of you are doing a great job. Your packet has two caveats. I would ask you to think about those. I also want to thank you for the help you're giving to Pueblo and other communities like Becker, St. Cloud area, and Minneapolis. Communities that have been very dependent on coal. You're helping them envision the future and to get there. You didn't have to do that. I work with a lot of companies that aren't doing that. The coal companies aren't doing that. You are. Thank you ever so much.
One caveat is carbon is forever. Every time we run a coal train through Denver or to Brush or to Sherco or wherever, some of that carbon from your packet you can see will stay in the atmosphere for up to 400,000 years. We're not just talking our children and our grandchildren. We're talking about hundreds of generations down the road. Every coal train that we can stop, every time we can reduce our reliance on natural gas while maintaining affordability and reliability is a great story. Thank you so much.
Just so the whole board hears it, and I'm in public on record, I would love to see coal plants retired, but the more important thing to me is to bring the capacity factor down, use them less often, keep them around for what I call the five-day blizzard or the bomb cyclone or whatever it is. We don't quite know how to do this yet. Your operations people have been amazing. Please thank them. They have done things they thought were completely impossible. Please thank them if they're not already here. You really have shown the way. You couldn't do it if they didn't know how to keep the lights on-
Absolutely
when the wind goes from 3,000 MW to zero and the load goes up and on and on. That's big stuff and all the techniques and the forecasting. The next page for the board packet is 415 parts per million in the atmosphere. If you have it in front of you can go back and look what it was when you were born. In my case, I'm off the charts. It was at about 315. We've gone from 315-415. If that doesn't send shivers down your spine, you don't really understand what we're dealing with. Time is of the essence. This is a race against time. Your carbon report talks about that. We're all on the same team. Please carry this message as widely as you can. The next couple pages were about competition.
Mr. Whitaker has done a really good job there. I know it kind of sounds when you're a monopoly like, why would we ever embrace competition? If you've ever played a game, checkers or tennis or softball, and your competition just isn't very good, it's kind of boring. The best way to forestall competition is to start thinking competitively. Old monopoly thinking is we just got to convince our regulators, and it's all good. New thinking is competition is knocking. We don't know if and when it's going to come, but we know there's a lot of folks ready to bring it to us, bring us higher levels of renewable energy at lower cost. Let's, as a company, start getting in shape for that, and I think you'll find it's more fun, actually. You'll be a better company.
You're already a great company, thank you so much, but you'll be better. Last point I'd like to make is just around the leading the transition. When I read your carbon report, it's very much focused on centralized solar. Right now, that's cheapest. I want to, and you might think I'm a little crazy, but I've said this to the company before, think about your children's literature. In this case, it's the story of the three little pigs. The first little pig went out and said, "Oh, I'm just going to build a straw house, and this is quick and easy and cheap," until the wolf comes along. "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down." As we head into extreme weather, centralized solutions are not going to be the best solutions. Let's really keep that balance going.
Let's keep working on your microgrids. Let's not try to destroy the whole distributed industry because we're actually all going to need them. Let's not build a bunch of cell phones that are big bricks. Let's really look to not just the best solution now in 2020, but as hurricanes and fires and the liability. Let's talk about PG&E, right?
Let's think about what it means to have centralized generation and long transmission lines. Again, thank you. I cannot thank you enough. Please just keep going and go faster. I know you're committed to that, thank you so very much.
Well, thank you, Ms. Glustrom. I appreciate the comments. We're going to move as fast as we can. As you know, if we were to make our product expensive or worse, if we made our product unreliable, what we're trying to do would come to a screeching halt, and naysayers that don't think carbon and climate risk are a real risk would say, "I told you so." We never want to cross that bridge. I appreciate the support. I wish we can get full support, some of the things we're doing, but we need to work together on that. You know what we're trying to do is get the big grid that we're all connected to, get carbon-free. That's a difficult assignment. It's a lot different than being 100% renewable at the individual community level.
Of course, if individuals want to do that, we can help them. It all gets ultimately synced up to the big grid. It's a big challenge, but we're up for the challenge to your comments. I think there's a lot of all of the above when it comes to how we can get that carbon-free energy. Again, I appreciate you prodding us to get there, and we'll continue to make progress, I can promise you that. Thank you. Have time for one more question, I think. We'll go to microphone one. Thank you.
Good morning, I think still. My name's Jeff Shaw. I'm with the Pueblo Economic Development Corporation, I had to smile a little bit when you mentioned the competition and hearing the competition. I had the privilege of working with the community and more importantly with Xcel on our largest economic development project, which was really saving EVRAZ Steel Mill. EVRAZ Steel Mill, which really created the history of Pueblo with CF&I, was looking at a very competitive process to build a new long rod mill. It turned into a competitive process with other states involved, other states were being very, very aggressive in trying to, in our world, save steel, our very large employer, to give you an impact to the steel mills of Pueblo. Currently, it's about a $300 million economic impact annually to the community.
It was a big deal for us. It created my organization when the steel industry crashed in the late '70s, early '80s. It really hit us hard. Really, what I'd like to do is say thank you to Xcel, through that process, there was multiple partners involved with it from the state and local. The team that Xcel Energy had involved on it to be creative, to face the competition we had, I know David Eves is here, Alice, and the entire Xcel team. It was wonderful work with such a great organization that was honest, we knew what they were telling us was accurate and true. They came up with a, we think, very creative solutions for us to be able to get that. Electricity rates were in play, it was, like I said, very competitive.
The community came up with about $100 million of incentives, the largest incentive package Pueblo's ever put together. We're still waiting for Evraz to make the final decision. I can honestly say, irregardless of the incentives, if Xcel wasn't at the table and how they came to the table to work with us on the project, the incentives wouldn't have mattered because it really came down to the product and the services Xcel did. On behalf of my organization, I just want to say thank you to Xcel and the leadership and the entire team.
Thank you, Mr. Shaw, and thanks for what you did to help keep Evraz. I got to tell you, David Eves, Alice, the whole team, Holly, Ashley, they make my job a lot easier. We're glad we can help, and we're almost there. We're almost there. Thanks for coming, everyone. We really appreciate the trust you've placed in Xcel Energy. Have a great day, drive safely home, and thank you for being here.