Spire Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to SPAR First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Dudley, Managing Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to SPIRE's Fiscal 2021 First Quarter Earnings Call. We issued an earnings news release this morning, and you may access it on our website at spireenergy.com under Newsroom. There's a slide presentation that accompanies our webcast, and you may download it from either the webcast site or from our website under Investors, and then Events and Presentations. Presenting on the call today are Suzanne Sitherwood, President and CEO, Steve Lindsey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Steve Rasche, Executive Vice President and CFO. Before we begin, let me cover our Safe Harbor Statement and use of non-GAAP earnings measures. Today's call, including responses to questions, may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although our forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are various uncertainties and risk factors that may cause future performance or results to be different than those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties are outlined in our quarterly and annual filings with the SEC. In our comments, we will be discussing net economic earnings and contribution margin, which are both non-GAAP measures used by management when evaluating our performance and results of operations. Explanations and reconciliations of these measures to their GAAP counterparts are contained in both our news release and slide presentation. With that, I'll turn the call over to Suzanne.

Thank you, Scott, and good morning to everyone joining us today for our first quarter update. On our year-end call, we reported that in fiscal 2020, we continue to make strides towards our strategic priorities despite the challenges from the coronavirus pandemic. By year-end, we delivered growth and solid financial and operating results while advancing our sustainability objectives. As we step forward, I'm pleased to tell you that we're building on last year's momentum and are off to a good start in fiscal 2021. We reported higher first quarter earnings, largely driven by our gas utilities, but also thanks to solid results from gas marketing. Steve Rasche will cover first quarter financial updates in a moment. At the same time, our operating performance is strong with improvements in safety, system integrity, service, and environmental sustainability. As we step into the new year, we're committed to executing on our strategic priorities that drive our growth while building on our ESG record. In particular, we remain focused on our commitment to being a carbon-neutral company by mid-century and achieving our methane emissions reduction goals. As you know, currently the primary driver in emissions reduction is pipeline replacement. We are on track with our plans, including investments in infrastructure upgrades and other programs to identify and reduce leaks. At the same time, we continue to evaluate other ways to meet our environmental commitment because we believe that natural gas has an important role to play in the energy transition to a low carbon future. We're looking at RNG and carbon offsets in the near term, while setting hydrogen as a longer term solution. Keep in mind that these carbon reducing approaches represent investment opportunities that can support earnings growth. That's because natural gas is critical to ensuring Americans have access to energy choices that are clean and affordable. As we announced yesterday, SPIRE has joined One Future, a natural gas industry coalition focused on improving the management of methane emissions across the entire value chain. Steve Lindsey will have more to say on this, but we are pleased to join several of our LDC peers in combining efforts to reduce methane emissions and collectively report on our achievements. We have also taken an important step in naming one of our SPIRE executives to lead our environmental efforts. Earlier this week, We named Nick Poyelski as Head of Environmental Commitment. Nick currently leads FIRE's business and economic development efforts. He brings expertise in data and analytics to this new role as he works to develop new business processes and guides the company strategy behind our commitment to being a carbon neutral company by mid-century. Although the environment is the focus we're talking about today, It is only one area within our corporate social responsibility, our ESG strategy. And I'm pleased to note that our total ESG efforts are getting noticed. As one example, Spire was ranked by Newsweek as one of America's most responsible companies, recognizing for the second year in a row our strong performance as a corporate citizen. Specifically, we are recognized for our commitment to the environment, social issues, and corporate governance. For the start of our fiscal year, We've also progressed on several regulatory matters, including completing the annual rate setting for our two Alabama utilities, Inspire Mississippi, as well as filing a rate review in Missouri. Steve Lindsey will cover this in more detail. As we build on our momentum from last year, it is important to capture our success and look to the future. In that spirit, last week we launched Our Story, our online annual review that outlines where we are today and what we're focused on going forward. I encourage you to explore the site at ourstory.spireenergy.com and see all the ways we are stepping forward, advancing, and innovating for a better tomorrow. In the meantime, let me share a few quick highlights. You'll see that we begin our story by highlighting what we're doing to protect our environment. This includes our commitment to being a carbon neutral company. to infrastructure upgrades and methane emissions reduction. You'll also see that we're driving future growth and earnings through our investment in upgrading our infrastructure, new businesses, and innovation. We're advancing people and performance. This encompasses everything from our operating performance, including safety, system integrity, and service, to programs that help employees learn, grow, and feel included. And last, but certainly not least, we take good care of our communities, including providing support during the pandemic. Overall, our story is about being an essential energy provider, including what it means to have the privilege and responsibility of delivering affordable, reliable, and clean energy while working to create a sustainable energy future. As I noted last time, achieving our collective success is only possible through the efforts of our 3,600 amazing fire employees. Our employees continue to step up in the face of challenges. Whether it's the coronavirus or winter storms, fire employees dedicate themselves to getting the job done and ensuring our customers and communities are well served, supported, and kept safe and healthy. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve Lindsey. Steve?