Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Jack Sullivan, Vice President of Investor Relations for Duke Energy. Thank you for joining us by webcast or the toll-free number we provided in advance. I'm pleased to welcome our shareholders from around the world. Today's meeting is being recorded and will be available through our website. Let's begin by reviewing today's agenda. In a moment, I'll introduce Lynn Good, our Chair, President and CEO, to call the meeting to order and facilitate the business portion of the agenda. Lynn will also provide an update on the company, followed by a question-and-answer session. You may submit questions by selecting the Q&A button on the portal. Today's discussion may include forward-looking information and the use of non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to information contained in our 2021 Form 10-K and subsequent filings concerning factors that could cause future results to be different from this forward-looking information. A reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measures can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website. Now, it is my pleasure to introduce Lynn Good.

Jack, thank you. And good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. We're hosting this meeting online for the sixth straight year, giving shareholders around the world the same opportunity to actively participate in the governance of Duke Energy. Legal notice of this meeting has been duly given. A quorum is present and the meeting is now lawfully convened for the transaction of business. With that, the meeting will please come to order. You should see a Vote button on your computer screen. The polls are now open, and you can cast your ballot at any time. Like all of you, our directors are participating online along with our independent auditors, Deloitte & Touche. In addition, Broadridge Financial Solutions has been appointed to act as inspector of elections. [ Jan Castillo ] from Broadridge is participating and has taken the oath of inspector of elections. Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe is our Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. Today, he also acts as Secretary of this meeting. Kodwo will report the number of shares entitled to vote and the number of shares and votes represented in person or by proxy at this meeting. So Kodwo, let me turn it to you.

Thank you, Lynn. As of the close of business on March 7, 2022, Duke Energy Corporation had outstanding and entitled to vote 769,899,467 shares of common stock, each of which is entitled to 1 vote. They are here represented by proxy, 641,731,018 shares of the corporation's common stock, which constitute approximately 83.4% of the total shares entitled to vote at this meeting. The final reports of the inspector of election will include any votes of shareholders voting through the web portal.

Kodwo, thank you. Let's proceed with the matters to be voted on. The first management proposal is the election of the Board of Directors. We have a declassified Board, which means that all of the directors stand for election every year at the annual meeting. Our elections also require nominees to receive a majority vote rather than a plurality to be elected. In addition to myself, these nominees, whose bios begin on Page 12 of the proxy statement, are presented for the purpose of voting for their election as directors: Derrick Burks, retired Managing Partner of Ernst & Young, Indianapolis; Annette Clayton, President and CEO, North America Operations of Schneider Electric; Ted Craver, retired Chairman, President and CEO of Edison International; Rob Davis, President and CEO of Merck; Caroline Dorsa, retired Executive Vice President and CFO of Public Service Enterprise Group; Roy Dunbar, retired Chairman and CEO of Network Solutions; Nick Fanandakis, retired Executive Vice President, DuPont; John Herron, retired President, CEO and Chief Nuclear Officer of Entergy Nuclear; Idalene Kesner, Dean, Indiana University Kelley School of Business; Marie McKee, retired Senior Vice President of Corning; Mike Pacilio, retired Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Exelon Generation, Exelon; Tom Skains, retired Chairman, President and CEO of Piedmont Natural Gas; and Bill Webster, retired Executive Vice President for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. They have been nominated for election as Directors for 1-year terms expiring in 2023. It's also -- I'd also like to take just a moment to pause and recognize Michael Browning, who is retiring from the Board at the end of today's meeting. I am so grateful for his service to our company, and on behalf of the Board and everyone at Duke Energy, I wish Michael the very best. There are 2 additional management proposals being presented for your approval. Proposal 2 is the ratification of Deloitte & Touche as Duke Energy's independent registered public accounting firm for 2022, as stated on Page 39 of the proxy statement. Proposal 3 is a vote on an advisory basis of our named executive officer compensation, as disclosed on Page 41 of the proxy statement. Also to be presented is 1 proposal we received from a shareholder, which Kodwo will now introduce.

I would like to remind shareholders that the proponent's statement is his own and does not represent the views of Duke Energy. Shareholder Proposal 4 begins on Page 73 of the proxy. It requests an amendment to the company's bylaws to reduce the threshold for shareholders to call a special shareholder meeting. John Chevedden is the proponent. Mr. Chevedden has authorized Kam Franklin to read his statement. Operator, please open the line so we can hear from Kam Franklin.

Go ahead, Kam.

Good morning. Can you guys hear me okay?

Yes, we can. Please proceed.

Perfect. Proposal 4, Shareholder Right to Call for a Special Shareholder Meeting, sponsored by John Chevedden. Shareholders ask our Board to take the steps necessary to amend the appropriate company governing documents to give the owners of a combined 10% of our outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareholder meeting. It is important to adopt this proposal because all shares not held for 1 continuous year are 100% disqualified from formally participating in the call for a special shareholder meeting. Under this ill-conceived Duke Energy rule, management discriminates against shareholders who bought Duke Energy stock during the past 12 months. Such shareholders are now second-class shareholders as far as having input to management and shareholders who recently made the investment decision to buy Duke Energy stock or increase their holdings can be the most informed shareholders. It is important to adopt this proposal to make up for our Useless version of a shareholder right to act by written consent. In order to take the first baby step to act by written consent, shareholders who own 20% of our company must turn over their contact information to management. With shareholder contact information in hand, Duke Energy management gets a head start and can use deep pockets company money to pester the owners of 20% of shares with professional proxy solicitors to change their minds on acting by written consent. In order to accomplish their objective, the owners of 20% of our company must increase their base by 150% while their base is easily attacked by management with free access to deep pockets company money. Special meetings allow shareholders to vote on important matters, such as electing new directors with special expertise or independence that may be lacking in our current or future directors as was the case with the 3 new Exxon directors supported by the Engine No. 1 hedge fund at the 2021 Exxon annual meeting. Our management is best served by providing the means for 10% of shareholders, who may have special expertise, to bring emerging opportunities or solutions to problems to the attention of management and all shareholders. It is important to remember that management can abruptly discontinue any shareholder engagement program if it fails to give mostly cheerleading support to management. There is no rule that prevents dishonest practices in shareholder engagement like asking shareholder input on a topic after introducing the topic with overwhelming negative comments. Our bylaws give no assurance that any engagement with shareholders will be undertaken. A more reasonable shareholder right to call for a special shareholder meeting will help ensure that management engages with shareholders in good faith because shareholders will have a viable Plan B as an alternative. Please vote yes, Special Shareholder Meeting Improvement, Proposal #4. Thank you.

I understand some of us may have had trouble hearing what you just read, so let me ask [ Jan Castillo ] to read your proposal again. Thank you. Thank you, [ Jan ].

Yes, Proposal 4, Shareholder Right to Call for a Special Shareholder Meeting, presented by John Chevedden. Shareholders ask our Board to take the steps necessary to amend the appropriate company governing documents to give the owners of a combined 10% of our outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareholder meeting. It is important to adopt this proposal because all shares not held for 1 continuous year are 100% disqualified from formally participating in the call for a special shareholder meeting. Under this ill-conceived Duke Energy rule, management discriminates against shareholders who bought Duke Energy stock during the last 12 years -- I'm sorry, during the past 12 months. Such shareholders are now second-class shareholders as far as having input to management and shareholders who recently made the investment decision to buy Duke Energy stock or increase their holdings can be the most informed shareholders. It is important to adopt this proposal to make up for our useless version of a shareholder's right to act by written consent. In order to take the first baby step to act with written consent, shareholders who own 20% of our company must turn over their contact information to management. With shareholder contact information in hand, Duke Energy management gets a head start and can use deep pockets company money to pester the owners of 20% of shares with professional proxy solicitors to change their mind on acting by written consent. In order to accomplish their objective, the owners of 20% of our company must increase their base by 150% while their base is easily attacked by management with free access to deep pockets company money. Special meetings allow shareholders to vote on important matters, such as electing new directors with special expertise or independence that may be lacking in our current or future directors as was the case with the 3 new Exxon directors supported by the Engine No. 1 hedge fund at the 2021 Exxon annual meeting. Our management is best served by providing the means for 10% of shareholders, who may have special expertise, to bring emerging opportunities or solutions to problems to the attention of management and all shareholders. It is important to remember that management can abruptly discontinue any shareholder engagement program if it fails to give mostly cheerleading support to management. There is no rule that prevents dishonest practices in shareholder engagement, like asking shareholder input on a topic after introducing the topic with overwhelming negative comments. Our bylaws give no assurance that any engagement with shareholders will be undertaken. A more reasonable shareholder right to call for a special meeting will help ensure that management engages with shareholders in good faith because shareholders will have a viable Plan B as an alternative.

That concludes our presentation of the proposals before us at the annual meeting. [Operator Instructions]

Kodwo, thank you. Before taking questions from our shareholders, I wanted to provide a brief business update. 2021 was a remarkable year for our company. We delivered on our commitments and made significant progress in leading the largest clean energy transition in the country. Our more than 27,000 teammates rallied behind our mission to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. We demonstrated our continued agility and discipline in managing costs, while investing in ways to better serve our customers and communities. The year was filled with accomplishments that positioned us for success in 2022 and beyond and I'm pleased to share some of the highlights with you today. First, we laid a strong foundation for growth, reaffirming our ability to meet our commitments and allowing us to accelerate our clean energy vision. We worked with stakeholders to help achieve bipartisan support in what's been called the most comprehensive piece of energy legislation in North Carolina history, setting the course for carbon reduction and regulatory reform. We look forward to delivering a carbon plan to the North Carolina Utilities Commission later this month that will map out a variety of paths to achieve 70% carbon reduction. Following the filing, the Commission will gather additional stakeholder input and approve a final plan by December 31. We also reached a landmark coal ash settlement in North Carolina with the Attorney General, public staff and Sierra Club, which resolved all remaining major coal ash management issues in North Carolina and clarified recovery treatment of costs for the next decade. We entered into a settlement agreement in Florida and received approval of a new multi-year rate plan, as well as the Clean Energy Connection, a solar program and the first 3 years of our Storm Protection Plan. We sold a minority interest in Duke Energy Indiana to GIC, a sovereign wealth fund, at a premium valuation, which will provide $2 billion in cash proceeds to help fund our growing capital plan. And after months of constructive dialogue, we entered into a cooperation agreement with Elliott Management that is consistent with our focus on enhancing shareholder value. Our path to 2050 is supported by 3 pillars: collaborating with stakeholders, transforming and readying our system and creating sustainable value for our customers and shareholders. In 2021, we made significant progress across each. Through collaborative stakeholder engagement, we were able to advance important legislative and regulatory priorities that helped balance our clean energy transition with reliability and affordability for our customers. At the federal level, we engaged Congress and the administration on infrastructure, tax and climate policies. We commend them for coming together in a bipartisan way to pass infrastructure legislation and look forward to working with the Department of Energy, other agencies and community partners to help develop and deploy new clean energy technologies. We are part of the Southeast Energy Exchange Market, which received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval, enabling us to provide significant customer benefits and advanced renewables with our peers throughout the Southeast beginning later this year. And we reached a net metering settlement with solar advocates in North Carolina, similar to the Solar Choice program in place in South Carolina, which benefits solar customers and non-solar customers alike. Our second pillar is about putting capital to work to ensure our system is ready to meet our ambitious transition. We continue to oversee the largest planned retirement of coal in our industry. We retired almost 1,000 megawatts of coal between the Carolinas and Indiana, bringing us to 7,500 megawatts retired since 2010. We surpassed 10,000 megawatts of owned, operated or purchased renewables on our system and remain on track to reach 16,000 megawatts of renewables by 2025 and 24,000 megawatts by 2030. We filed for a second license renewal of Oconee Nuclear Station, our largest nuclear plant, and we plan to file requests for our remaining units to maintain this vital source of carbon-free energy for another 20 years. And in the final prong of our strategy, creating sustainable value, we ensure that our work benefited our customers and our shareholders. We continue to surpass our benchmark targets for our internal customer satisfaction metrics and improved our J.D. Power rankings year-over-year in nearly all of our jurisdictions. We implemented our new billing and technology system, Customer Connect, enabling a better customer experience and recently completed its rollout across all of our electric utilities. And for our investors, we delivered strong returns and our total shareholder return outperformed the broader utility index for the second consecutive year. Our strategic accomplishments were possible thanks to our teammates' focus on safety and operational excellence. I can't thank our employees enough for their incredible work. It's because of these results that I have great optimism and confidence in our future. The path forward is as clear as it's ever been. Already in 2022, we've taken aggressive action expanding our net-zero emission goal to include Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions. We also announced we're targeting energy from coal to represent less than 5% of our total generation by 2030 and a full exit by 2035. We look forward to continued progress on our goals across our jurisdictions, retiring coal units, adding renewables and battery storage, investing in the grid, advocating for new zero-emitting technologies and collaborating with state and federal policymakers, regulators and stakeholders to meet the unique needs of each state. We will update you on the ways we're building upon our success and advancing our strategy at our fall ESG Investor Day on October 4. Our promise is to continue this momentum. Our 5-year enterprise capital plan includes $63 billion of investment and 80% is directed to our clean energy transition. The growing investment base in our constructive thriving jurisdictions give us confidence in our ability to earn within the 5% to 7% guidance range through 2026 and the top half of the range as our 5-year plan progresses. Kodwo, now that the polls are closed, I will ask you for the inspector of elections report before I answer questions.

Based on the proxies received, each nominee for director has been elected by over 91% of the shares voted. The ratification of Deloitte & Touche as Duke Energy's independent registered public accounting firm for 2022 has passed, with approximately 94% of the vote. The advisory vote on our named executive officer compensation has passed, with approximately 92% of the vote. Finally, Proposal 4, seeking a lower threshold for shareholders to call for a special shareholder meeting, has failed, receiving approximately 36% of the vote.

Kodwo, thank you. The final reports of the inspector of election are ordered to be filed with the minutes of this meeting. So the meeting is adjourned. And now, I'd like to take a moment and answer some of your questions. So Jack, I'll turn it to you.

Thanks, Lynn. For the past several weeks, we've invited our shareholders to submit questions and welcome you to submit others while we're on the air. We appreciate and value the level of engagement and interest from all of you. We know it's important that your voices are heard, so I'm going to read the questions exactly as you submitted them. All of the questions we received and answers to them will soon be posted to the Investors section of our website.

Lynn, we've already received a lot of questions in advance, so we've got plenty of ground to cover today. And what jumps out to me is how many of them relate to the important role that Duke Energy serves in our communities, especially as we journey through our clean energy transition.

Jack, we recognize that important role that we play, whether it's clean energy transition, reliability, affordability, stewardship of our resources, so I look forward to the discussion.

Great. While with reliability being paramount in delivering power to our customers, why don't we kick off with that topic?

Sure.

This shareholder says, "Please advise where you are as far as hardening security against cyber attacks as well as for improving infrastructure?"

Well, cybersecurity and physical security is front and center. And I think about this moment, Jack, where it's on the front page of the newspaper with increasing threats around infrastructure. And I would say to all of our investors and stakeholders that we take our responsibility around the safety and reliability of our system very seriously. And we have put increasing investment into cyber and physical security to reflect the importance of that work. It includes not only adhering to standards and working closely with the government and industry partners on information sharing, but investing in our defenses so that we're prepared, learning as much from others as we can and trying to be as proactive to put defenses in place before issues occur. And then we also spend a lot of time on recovery. Because if there is a moment when something occurs, can we recover and recover quickly? So I would say to you, physical and cyber security, we understand our customers are counting on us, the important role we play in our communities and it is a top of mind conversation, not only at the leadership of Duke Energy, but at our Board as well.

Right. So we're taking a lot of steps to ensure reliable energy, but our shareholders are becoming increasingly focused on the way in which we produce it. And these next few questions seek more color on that, beginning with this one: What is the commitment to renewable energy plans for the next decade?

Jack, I think that renewable question really speaks to this transition underway in our industry. And Duke comes to this period of transformation with not only a strong track record, but with a clear vision on what we want to accomplish. So as we sit here today, our carbon emissions are down almost 45% from 2005. And we've set a variety of targets about the future, so I'll share a few of them with you and some I talked about in my remarks. We're working to get to at least 50% reduction by 2030. That includes coal representing only 5% of our energy generated and an exit of coal by 2035. We also have a goal of net-zero methane emissions from our local distribution companies by 2030 and then net-zero by 2050 on our carbon emissions that we generate, as well as Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions. So that -- those targets have been established with a great deal of thought and work and with a recognition that we also must maintain reliable and affordable power. And there are a number of proof points I would point to on the progress we're making towards those targets. As I mentioned, we'll be filing a carbon reduction plan on May 16 here in North Carolina. We also just passed the 10,000 megawatt mark on renewables across our system. We filed an integrated resource plan in Indiana that reflects those targets for the State of Indiana. And we continue to actively advocate for clean energy technologies. Because once we get past 2030 and begin that more rapid decline to net-zero, we see a need for an expanded set of resources, longer duration storage, advanced nuclear, hydrogen and we are actively putting our work into those technologies by piloting, advocating, serving in advisory roles and working closely with government partners and others to make sure we use this decade in order to accomplish what we need for the next one. So I would say Duke Energy's climate strategy and business strategy are closely aligned. Capital is being deployed in that direction and we're anxious to report our progress along the way.

Great. You touched on our interim goals of fully exiting coal. This next shareholder would like some thoughts on fossil fuels in general by asking, "When is Duke Energy going to move away from fossil fuels?"

And Jack, coal, we just talked about. It's been an important part of the mix. We're working actively to be out of coal by 2035, of course, subject to approval from our regulators. We continue to see natural gas in the mix for a period of time and I would say to you that is closely linked to reliability. We must have a way to generate power when intermittency from renewables is a challenge for operating the system. I think about the Carolinas, with the winter peaks, 7 a.m. the morning, we often have very little renewable availability at that time. But I do see the use of natural gas declining over time. I see it being more of a peaking resource and then mentioning the work we're doing around hydrogen and advocating for sustained government funding on these clean energy technologies, I also believe will be important to lessening our dependence on fossil fuels.

Great. Well, our nuclear operations play a vital role in our clean energy future and this next shareholder wants to learn a bit more about our nuclear strategy by asking, "Does Duke Energy plan on building more nuclear power plants? This country needs more nuclear power generation, which is safe, reliable, because wind and solar are weather-dependent, not reliable and will not fulfill future demand."

Well, Jack, I love talking to a nuclear advocate, because Duke Energy is a nuclear advocate. We have a long history of safe, reliable operations of nuclear. And I would say to you, our nuclear resources are some of the most valuable assets that we own today. Here in the Carolinas, 50% of the energy comes from nuclear, all of it carbon-free. So as we look to this net-zero future, we are working actively to extend the lives of our existing resources. You heard me talk about second license renewal at Oconee. We plan to extend that to the rest of our fleet. And we're also actively working in advisory capacities and closely following small modular reactors, advanced nuclear with energy storage, because we believe these technologies could be particularly important in the 2030s as they develop at commercial scale so that we can continue our progress towards net zero. So we believe nuclear has to be a part of the solution, Jack, and we are following -- preserve what we have and looking to the new technologies as part of that net-zero strategy.

Okay. Well, moving from how we produce power to how we communicate with customers. This next question relates to our billing process: Why doesn't Duke consolidate billing for Duke and Piedmont Gas, where customers have both, and send 1 bill? This would eliminate a lot of mail and effort for the staff and cut cost.

Well, I appreciate that question and I want to thank that customer for being both an electric and gas customer. We value your business. But what we have found, really based on feedback directly from our customers, is that they prefer customized communication. So when we send a Piedmont bill, we'll be sending specific recommendations on energy efficiency around gas. We'll be sending specific information around how prices may be impacted by commodity prices or other things and so that communication is specifically tailored to a gas customer. And similarly, on the electric side, we're tailoring communication to what an electric customer might want. And our work with customers would say that's what they prefer so that they can act on that information in connection with paying their bills. So we'll continue to consider these things, always looking for efficiencies, but we believe the format we're using today provides the best customer experience with customized solutions for that service.

Okay. So sticking with customer communications, this shareholder wanted some thoughts on our energy usage summary and billing rates by saying, "Stop wasting money every month with your ridiculous energy usage summary and stop raising prices."

The energy summary, I would say, as we look across our customers, and you think about we serve everyone in the jurisdictions that we have the honor to operate in, the monthly energy bill can be significant to many of our customers and we are often asked about how we can save money. So that energy usage bill is intended to help educate a customer on when they are using their usage. And then we have an opportunity for customers to enroll in programs to lower their usage. And I look at the participants in those programs, and across our jurisdictions, they have saved millions of kilowatt hours, which means directly to their bill. So I believe educating, giving customers information and data about their usage is nothing but a good thing to help them manage their energy bill. And then price is a good question and always on the minds of our customers. And I would say to this customer and investor that we work hard every day on reliability and affordability. And prices right now are being impacted by external events not only here in the U.S. but around the world. I think about commodity prices, natural gas, coal, et cetera, and so those commodity prices are finding their way into energy bills. And I know it's coming at a time of inflation, so we are also working actively to communicate to customers along the lines I talked about on how you can save money on your energy bill, but also working with our vulnerable customers through Share the Light, a program that provides an opportunity to reduce bills, to participate in that program, and then also working with agencies that can provide specific grants and assistance to customers who are challenged. So we pay attention to price. We're using every tool we can to address these commodity prices and we'll continue to work with customers to help them find ways to lessen that impact.

Okay. Lynn, these next few questions relate to our Board of Directors, beginning with this one on Board composition: "Please assure investors that directors are selected by best qualification, skills and experience. The directors should not be a social experiment. Investors invest because they are looking for return on their money."

Jack, I would say I'm very proud of the Board of Duke Energy. I would say we have one of the most capable, qualified, diverse boards in the industry. And we do actively recruit for skills that we think are important to this moment of transformation that the industry is undergoing, but also for this 24/7 responsibility that we have around reliability and affordability. So we do recruit for skills, whether financial or operational, regulatory, environmental, governance, a wide variety of skills, and you can actually find information around the skills of each of our directors. But I would also say we care deeply about diversity. We care deeply about diversity on our Board. We care deeply about diversity within our workforce, because we believe a diverse group of people, diverse in thought, diverse in background, diverse in gender and ethnicity, helps us solve the complex issues that we face. And so we will continue to place a priority on making sure we have the right skills, but we're also keeping an eye on diversity. And at this point, Duke's Board is 50% diverse on gender and ethnicity, which I am also particularly proud of.

Switching gears to our next topic, this shareholder provides some perspectives on executive compensation by saying, "No company executives should be paid over $2 million. Every corporate executive in America is grossly overpaid."

Well, compensation is an important topic and I would leave you with a couple of thoughts. The first one is that at all levels of employees at Duke Energy, we strive to pay at market. And I think about this moment, Jack, when there are labor shortages and a demand for talent in every industry. It is important that we pay at market so that we have the talent to innovate, to transform, to change, to operate with excellence, and so our commitment to our employees at every level is that we will actively work to pay at market. And then for the executives, I would also point to the fact that the pay is very closely linked to performance. And by that I mean a substantial part of that compensation is tied to our ability to hit our reliability targets, our financial targets, our safety targets, our customer service targets and also our stock performance, total shareholder return. And so that performance link really incents us to complete our work and serve all of the stakeholders that are important to Duke, our assets that our customers rely on, reliability, our investors as well our employees, with safety and a number of other programs. So those 2 elements of compensation remain top of mind for us and will continue to work to ensure we have the talent to complete the important strategy of this company and continue to serve our customers well.

You mentioned stock price performance. And this next question is from a shareholder who's taken note of our higher stock price recently and would like your thoughts on when it might make sense to ever consider a stock split by saying, "In light of the fact that our company stock is now trading in the $110 range, which makes the pricing quite high for the smaller to average investor who is interested in utility and income stocks, is there any thought or plans for a stock split to lower the market price of Duke common stock?"

We look at this from time to time and really appreciate the investment of this investor. We don't have any plans right now to split the stock. I think $100, $110 is achievable for many, for most. But we do look at it periodically, just no plans right now.

Okay. These next few questions relate to our financial contributions and stakeholder engagement strategy. One shareholder asks, "Has the company contributed any dollars or other compensation to Black Lives Matter or antifa?"

Let me pull that question back a little bit, Jack, because I think it speaks to perhaps a topic that's broader around racial equity, social justice, at least that's what I hear in it. And this has been a topic that's front and center for Duke Energy, for our employees, our employee resource groups, and we've been very actively engaged in our communities in order to make investments in those organizations that have a specific mission to further racial equity and social justice in our communities. We've in fact engaged our employees to help us identify those organizations that they're involved with that perhaps we could support through our foundation. But on the specifics of Black Lives Matter and antifa, we have not donated to either of those organizations, but remain committed to invest in the programs that our communities care deeply about and which we believe will strengthen the communities that we serve.

Okay. And regarding our engagement with policymakers, this shareholder asks, "Does Duke actively lobby public policymakers, including state and federal legislators and state and federal executive agency leaders, to encourage the development of renewable energy sources?"

Jack, I would comment that Duke is involved in the energy conversation. The energy conversation at the state level, at the federal level, energy conversation with our customers, with our regulators, with the agencies. And we do so in a way that not only communicates our commitment to the clean energy transition, but also the importance of reliability and affordability. And we think that conversation and that voice is particularly important because we represent our customers. We represent our investors. We represent our employees, the assets that we operate around all of the areas that we serve, the communities that count on those assets. And so as I think about the last year, maybe a couple of examples that I would share. We were very engaged in the conversation about renewable energy tax credits and how we, as part of our clean energy transition, are committed to building renewables. The tax credits could be very influential to the price of those assets to our customers, lowering the price. And we were also very active in the conversation around the infrastructure bill to emphasize the importance of clean technology and I talked about that a little bit in my remarks. We see this decade as an important decade to invest in the technologies that we're going to need in the 2030s. So hydrogen, advanced nuclear, et cetera. So those are a couple of examples of where we were engaged in that conversation. We believe it's important that we remain engaged so that our voice is heard and we have an opportunity to participate, hear feedback and really advance the conversation towards the clean energy transition.

Great. Some of our most engaged shareholders are our own retirees, many of whom participate in our pension plan. This next question comes from a retired shareholder who wants your thoughts on pension compensation: Would it be appropriate to request the Board to consider an increase in the current retirees' compensation, retired 18 years and have not received an increase in compensation?

Jack, I appreciate that and really appreciate the retirees. The legacy of our retired employees' impact on this company cannot be overstated and appreciate the question. We are not planning to increase compensation coming through the pension plan. But I would also say, as we work with employees that are preparing for retirement, that pension plan is only a piece of the overall picture. It includes other investments and 401(k) plans and the whole composition of what a retiree should be looking for in terms of supporting their retirement. And we're very active with active employees to point them to those requirements and resources and provide some consulting as needed or as an employee might be interested in how they might prepare for retirement. So thank you for all the work you did for the company and you know you're important to Duke Energy.

Great. Well, shifting from employee benefits to employee health and safety. Managing through a global pandemic these past few years has presented a lot of unique challenges and circumstances and this next shareholder has some thoughts they wanted to offer on COVID protocols in the workplace by saying, "If Duke Energy has not already done so, I would like to submit the following proposal: Duke Energy shall eliminate any and all COVID restrictions upon its workforce henceforth. I will -- it will add to the bylaws of the company a provision stating that no employees shall be forced to take any vaccination they choose to decline nor shall COVID shots be a requirement of employment. All matters of personal health care shall be considered private and not the business of the employer."

Well, COVID certainly has had an impact on our operation, as I know it has on many businesses. And I think back to March of 2020, we got focused on 2 things: keeping power and gas flowing to our customers, because those customers are being impacted by a health issue and an economic issue. And then secondly, keeping our employees safe. So we moved about half of our workforce to a remote location, working at home. And the other half, we instituted safety protocols, masking, temperature checking, social distancing. And I am so proud of how we managed through this. And our field organizations, in particular, adhering to safety protocols because they're accustomed to safety being paramount at Duke Energy. At no point did we mandate vaccines, but we did ensure and continue to communicate the importance of safety and maintaining the protocols that were appropriate at the time. And so as I look back on it, those guiding principles of taking care of our customers and taking care of our employees will always be our guiding principles as we think about what might happen in the future. And again, incredibly proud of the workforce at Duke Energy.

Okay. Our next question is on net metering, which we know is very important to our customers. The question reads, "What is the reason for a change in how solar customers are credited for their excess solar generation?"

Rooftop solar is a growing part of our generation mix and I think about -- I think it's something like 100,000 rooftop connections to our system, Jack. And so the compensation is important because we need to pay at a fair and reasonable rate so that not only the customer who generates the power, but the customers who benefit from power are paying a fair amount. And so all of this discussion around net metering is intended to get to that fair and reasonable compensation. And I think about this area as a growing area over the next decade and beyond and it's important to get it right. And I'm proud and referenced early in my remarks a few moments ago, the work we've been doing in North and South Carolina around settlement on finding that fair and reasonable balance that I believe strikes the right balance between the needs of those who are installing solar, customers who have solar and also customers who don't and ensuring that we have adequate resources to maintain the grid that supports all of this. So it's an important topic, but one that we need to address for sustainability of rooftop solar.

Yes. Well, let's wrap up our Q&A session with this last question on the life cycle of renewables: Since Duke is moving toward more renewables, I would like to know how products that have worn out are disposed? For example, what happens to a solar panel? What happens to a wind turbine? And what happens to a battery? Is the net effect of disposing these products just as harmful to the environment as using natural gas? And are these new ways to provide electricity just as harmful as clean natural gas? Are these new ways really cost effective?

Jack, I -- it's a good question and I would respond by saying there is no technology that we operate that does not have an environmental footprint of some sort. But along with that, no matter what the technology, we take very seriously mitigating the environmental impact throughout the life cycle. And so specifically to solar and wind and battery, there's a substantial amount of these technologies that can be recycled. So on a solar panel, about 90%, and the remaining amount we would dispose of consistent with local standards. In the wind area, we typically review repowering, which could be changing the blades. The blades are largely recyclable. In fact, General Electric has a program around recycling. And the tower, the gearbox, the turbine itself, all of those things, about 85% to 90% are recyclable. And then in the battery area, we work hard to reclaim the minerals. So think cobalt, think nickel, as we think about decommissioning batteries. And just in the last few weeks, the Department of Energy has designated $2 billion, $3 billion to specifically look at this, second life batteries, recycling and advancing those technologies. So I would leave this investor with the thought that we care deeply and are committed to working on the environmental footprint of all of the resources that we use over the life cycle and are committed to recycling as much as we possibly can, understanding that this will be an increasing part of our generation mix.

Very good.

Okay.

Well, Lynn, thanks for the good dialogue on the topics our shareholders want to talk about. That concludes the Q&A portion of the meeting. So Lynn, I'll pass it back to you for some closing remarks.

Well, Jack, thank you. And to all of our investors, as a reminder, we will post your questions and answers to the Investors section of the Duke Energy website under today's date and I want to thank you again for joining us. Thank you for your investment in Duke Energy and I wish a good afternoon to all of you.