Kinder Morgan, Inc.

Thank you, Michelle. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you, as we always do, that KMI's earnings release today and this call

include forward-looking statements within the meeting of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as well as certain non-GAAP financial measures. Before making any investment decisions, we strongly encourage you to read our full disclosures on forward-looking statements and use of non-GAAP financial measures set forth at the end of our earnings release as well as review our latest filings with the SEC for important material assumptions, expectations, and risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated and described in such forward-looking statements. Now, every quarter, I open this call by talking about our financial philosophy at Kinder Morgan. I always mention strong and consistent cash flow. and explain how we use that cash flow to pay a healthy and growing dividend, internally fund our expansion capex needs, keep our balance sheet strong, and opportunistically buy back our shares. I believe our shareholders understand and appreciate the strength of our cash flow, even if there are varied positions on what we should do with it. But in a broader sense, if we examine what owning a share of KMI really amounts to, I've come to believe as the largest shareholder that we are receiving a very good and growing yield on our investment, while at the same time getting amazing optionality on future developments. Let me explain that optionality. We have entered the energy transition field with what I consider to be solid investments that Steve and the team will discuss further, and our cash flow gives us the ability to pursue those opportunities in size if and only if the investments achieve a satisfactory return. And I believe that if we so desire, we will be able to attract new partners at a time of our choosing, whether public or private, to participate in those opportunities with us on terms favorable to KMI. I also firmly believe that there is still a long runway for fossil fuels around the world, particularly for natural gas. If you read carefully the latest studies from the IEA, OPEC, and from various other energy experts, you will see projections that fossil fuels will continue to supply the majority of our energy needs for at least the next quarter century, and that natural gas will be at the forefront of fulfilling those needs. If these projections are anywhere close to accurate, a company like Tender Morgan with significant free cash flow will find significant opportunities to invest in this core business where we have substantial expertise and a huge network that can be expanded and extended. So this is another option that you receive as a KMI shareholder. I would add that the events of this fall throughout Europe, Asia, and North America demonstrate that the transition to renewables is going to be a lot longer and more difficult than many of its proponents originally thought. In short, while the world makes the transition, the lights need to stay on, homes need to be hated, and our industrial production needs to be sustained. Finally, we always have the option of returning dollars to our shareholders through selective stock repurchases in addition to the healthy return we are providing through our dividend. This is why I say that an investment in KMI provides you with a nice locked-in return with this dividend and then provides really good optionality for the future. And with that, I'll turn it over to Steve.

All right. Thanks, Rich. I'll give you an overview of our business and the current environment for our sector as we see it. Then our president, Kim Nguyen, will cover the outlook and segment updates. Our CFO, David Michaels, will take you through the financials, and then we'll take your questions. Our financial principles remain the same. First, maintaining a strong balance sheet. A strong balance sheet helps us withstand setbacks and enables us to take advantage of opportunities. Over the last two years, we've seen both sides of that coin. Coming into 2020, we were better than our leverage target, and that helped us when we were hit with the pandemic-related downturn. Then this year, we saw the other side, where our extra capacity created as a result of our outperformance in the first quarter gave us the ability to take advantage of two acquisition opportunities. We see both of those acquisitions as adding value to the firm. second we are maintaining our capital discipline through our elevated return criteria a good track record of execution and by self-funding our investments we are also maintaining our cost discipline we have always been lean but last year at this time we were completing an evaluation of how we were organized and how we could work even more efficiently we implemented changes resulting in an estimated four-year run rate deficiencies of about $100 million a year. In that effort, we were aiming for something beyond efficiency, greater effectiveness, and we can see that coming through in the functions we centralized under the leadership of our Chief Operating Officer, James Holland. We are already seeing the benefits in project management and other functions. Finally, we are returning value to shareholders with the year-over-year dividend increase to $1.08 annualized, providing an increased but well-covered dividend. Strong balance sheet, capital and cost discipline, returning value to shareholders. Those are the principles we operate by, and we have done so regardless of what is in fashion at the moment. We have accomplished some important work so far in 2021, which I believe will lead to long-term distinction. First, we're having a record year financially attributable to our outperformance in the first quarter. We've continued to execute well on our projects with our two interstate gas group projects coming in ahead of schedule, as noted in the press release. And we have continued to find new opportunities with a small net increase in our backlog this quarter. Second, we completed the two important acquisitions, the larger one, Stagecoach, showing our confidence in the long-term value of our natural gas business and taking our total operated storage capacity to 700 BCF. We believe in the long-term value of flexibility and deliverability in the gas business. That was demonstrated last winter. We are seeing it with the recent tightening in the natural gas markets here and abroad and in our rates on storage renewals. Third, we've continued to advance the ball on the ongoing evolution in energy markets and in our ESG performance. As things stand today, 69% of our backlog is in support of low-carbon infrastructure. That includes natural gas, of course, but it also includes $250 million of organic projects supporting renewable diesel in our products and terminals business units and our renewable natural gas projects. repurposing and building assets at our current terminal locations to support the energy sources of the future. Importantly, too, that 69% is projected to come in at a weighted average 3.6 times EBITDA multiple of the expansion capital spent. So we're getting attractive returns on these investments. Further, our gas team has now concluded three responsibly sourced gas transactions. Those are low emissions along the chain from the producer through our transmission and storage business. We'll soon be publishing our ESG report, including both Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. We have incorporated ESG reporting and risk management into our existing management processes, and the report will explain how. In the meantime, Sustainalytics has us ranked number one in our sector for how we manage ESG risk, and two other rating services have us in the top 10. This is increasingly a point of distinction with our investors, our regulators, and our customers. With all of this, our projects, These commercial transactions and our ESG reporting and risk management, we continue to advance the ball on ESG and the evolution in energy markets without sacrificing returns. We continue to focus on the G governance in ESG as well. These things are all important to our long-term success, and we have advanced the ball significantly on all three in 2021. We believe the winners in our sector will have strong balance sheets low-cost operations that are safe and environmentally sound, and the ability to get things done in difficult circumstances. As always, we will evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities. And with that, I'll turn it over to Kim.