DTE Energy Company (DTE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the DTE Energy Company Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Gerry Anderson, Executive Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead, sir.

Well, good morning, everyone, and I welcome all of you to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of DTE Energy Company. So we are meeting virtually for the first time in company history in an effort to keep all of the participants on this call healthy and safe. So before we begin, please note the rules of conduct located on the welcome page for this meeting. Our agenda today will start with a review of the proposals, followed by a short question-and-answer session, and we'll close with a report from the Corporate Secretary. [Operator Instructions] So first, I'd like to introduce the nominees who are standing for election to the Board of Directors, and they have all consented to serve if elected, and their names appear in the proxy statement for this meeting. All nominees will serve for 1-year terms ending in 2021. And the nominees are: David A. Brandon, Nonexecutive Chairman of Domino's Pizza; Charles G. McClure, Managing Partner, Michigan Capital Advisors; Gail J. McGovern, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Red Cross; Mark Murray, Retired Vice Chairman of Meijer, Inc.; Gerry Norcia, President and CEO of DTE Energy; Ruth Shaw, Retired President and CEO of Duke Power Company; Robert Skaggs, Retired CEO, Columbia Pipeline Group and NiSource, Inc.; David Thomas, President of Morehouse College; Gary Torgow, Executive Chairman of TCF Financial Corporation; James Vandenberghe, Retired Vice Chairman and Former Director of Lear Corporation; Valerie Williams, Retired Southwest Assurance Managing Partner, Ernst & Young; and I am also standing for reelection at this meeting. Also present today are some members of our senior management team, and we may call upon them during the short question-and-answer period. Doug Beck, a representative from our independent public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is also in attendance. The proxy committee for today's meeting consists of Lisa Muschong and JoAnn Chávez. EQ Shareholder Services has been appointed by the Board of Directors as the inspector of election for this meeting. And Angela Stewart, a representative of EQ, is in attendance. Lisa Muschong, Vice President and the company's Corporate Secretary, will report on the voting results at the appropriate time. So Ms. Muschong has informed me that the meeting is properly convened and a quorum is present. If you have already voted your shares, there's no need for you to take any action during this meeting. If you have not yet voted your shares and wish to do so, please follow the instructions on the welcome page for this meeting. So a certified record of registered owners of common stock of the company as of the record date is available for examination by shareholders during this meeting. Please submit requests via e-mail to the e-mail address located on the voting page. EQ will provide you with a link to examine the record of registered shareowners. So I'd like now to review the 4 proposals that we are voting on today: first, the election of directors; second, the ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2020; third, the vote on an advisory proposal to approve executive compensation; and fourth, the vote on a shareholder proposal to require additional disclosure of political contributions. Please note that during the annual meeting, we will do our best to answer questions from shareholders pertaining to each proposal being considered, and then general questions from shareholders will be addressed following the meeting during the question-and-answer session. So at this time, the polls are open for voting. Again, if you've already voted your shares, you need not take any action. So it's now in order to consider the election of the 12 directors. Earlier, I introduced the nominees whose names appear in the proxy statement. As described more fully in the proxy statement, if elected, the 12 nominees will serve 1-year terms that expire at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders in 2021. The company has not received notice of any other nominations for the position of director as required by the bylaws. And accordingly, there are no other nominees. You cannot cumulate votes for directors. You simply vote for or withhold your vote from each nominee. And you can't vote for more than 12 nominees. So are there any questions or comments pertaining to the first proposal, Barb?

There are no questions.

Okay. Thank you. And we'll move on to the second proposal. So the next order of business is to consider the proposal to ratify the Audit Committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for 2020. Barb, are there any questions or comments pertaining to the second proposal?

There are no questions.

All right. Then the next order of business is to consider the advisory proposal to approve the company's executive compensation. And details of this proposal are set forth in the proxy statement. Barb, are there any questions or comments pertaining to the third proposal?

There are no questions.

All right. Thank you. Then the next order of business is to consider the shareholder proposal on political contributions. So details of this proposal are set forth in the proxy statement. And at this time, operator, could you please bring in Mary Minette, who is Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Mercy Investment Services.

Good morning. I'm Mary Minette, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Mercy Investment Services, currently holding more than 850 shares of DTE Energy common stock. I hereby move proposal #4, seeking to establish greater accountability and transparency in our company's political spending. Mercy Investments, together with numerous other mainstream investors, considers disclosure of political expenditures made with corporate funds and payments to third-party groups to be an important Board accountability issue and a standard in good governance. Public attention and scrutiny of corporate political contributions is growing even as the Federal Election Commission reports that outside groups spent $1.42 billion on political campaigns in the 2016 election cycle and $1.1 billion in the 2018 cycle. Many of these organizations do not disclose their donors, and they often have strong ties to elected officials, leading to public perception that they are a means to buy influence and access. Companies that engage in political spending face heightened risks from contributions to candidates or organizations that may conflict with core values and endanger their reputations, the relationship with consumers and employees and their bottom line. There is an effective solution to this reputational and economic risk, and that is disclosure. Although our company offers a policy on corporate political spending on its website and discloses some of its spending, its disclosure does not provide enough reassurance to investors that the risks of political spending are being carefully managed. Key information is missing from company disclosures, including contributions to state-level political candidates and parties; 527 political committees and independent expenditure campaigns; as well as contributions that support and/or oppose ballot measures and payments to nonprofit entities, such as 501(c)(4) groups that engage in political activity. It is virtually impossible to obtain a full accounting of corporate political spending from public sources. The only way to get a full picture of our company's political contributions is for the company to disclose them. We are asking DTE to disclose a full picture of its corporate political spending so that investors and our Board can appropriately evaluate and mitigate potential risks. At a time when the trend among large companies, including DTE peer companies, is to be more open about their political spending and their policies, our company would benefit from greater disclosure. We urge support of Proposal #4. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Mary. And Barb, do we have any question or comments pertaining to the fourth proposal?

There are no questions.

All right. Well, thank you. And this then concludes the business to come before the meeting. So the polls are now closed, and the business meeting is adjourned. And next, Jerry Norcia and I will conduct a short question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And at this point, I am going to turn things over to Jerry Norcia, and he and I will be available to answer your questions as appropriate.

Thank you, Gerry. And at this point, I'll ask Barb if there are any questions.

Yes, Jerry. We do have a couple of questions. The first is a 2-part question. When will you stop generating with coal? And how much of your generation is from coal right now?

That's a great question. We've been one of the leaders in the industry to announce our carbon-reduction goals. And as you may have seen, we plan to reduce 80% of our carbon emissions by 2040 and also be in a net 0 position by 2050, which is something that we're really proud of. And we were one of the first in the industry to make that move. We are also the largest renewables investor in the State of Michigan with over $2 billion invested in wind energy and solar energy, and we plan to continue that path to invest another $1.5 billion to $2 billion in renewables. We plan to retire our coal plants in phases. The first phase is in 2022. And ultimately, by 2040, we will have retired our last coal plant. But we will -- this will drive a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and as I mentioned, 80% by 2040.

Great. And our final question is, how has COVID-19 affected the company's operations?

Well, the first thing that we did is that we made our employees safe during this pandemic, and we suspended all nonessential work approximately 30 days ago, and that led to making our employees extremely safe. Obviously, we had to maintain essential services, such as gas service and electric service. So several thousand of our employees had to remain on the job, but we made sure that they were safe with proper protective equipment and also proper procedures. As we enter this week, we are starting to return to work gradually in an appropriate way to ensure that our employees and the public will remain safe with proper protective equipment and processes.

Thank you. We have no additional questions in the queue.

Okay. Well, thank you, then, Barb. And this concludes our question-and-answer session. And I will now ask Lisa Muschong, our Vice President and Corporate Secretary, to report on the preliminary voting results.

Thank you, Gerry. With regard to the election of directors, all of the nominees for director have been elected by a majority of votes cast until their terms expire or until their successors have been duly elected and qualified. With regard to the proposal to ratify the appointment by the Audit Committee of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2020, the tabulator reports that a majority of votes cast were in favor of the proposal, and the appointment has been ratified. With regard to the advisory proposal to approve the company's executive compensation, the tabulator reports that a majority of votes cast were for the proposal. Therefore, the proposal has passed. And finally, with regard to the shareholder proposal regarding political contributions, the tabulator reports that a majority of votes cast were against the proposal. Therefore, the shareholder proposal has not passed. That completes my report.

Well, thank you, Lisa. And with the report out of the results, we are now adjourned. Thank you very much for participating in our meeting this morning.