Spire Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the SPIRE year-end 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 touchtone phone. 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. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our fiscal 2021 year-end earnings call. We issued an earnings news release this morning, and you may find that on our website at spireenergy.com under the newsroom. There's also a slide presentation that accompanies our webcast today, and you may download that either from the webcast site or from our website. under investors and then events and presentations. 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. On the call today is Suzanne Sutherwood, SPIRE's President and CEO, Steve Lindsey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Steve Rasche, Executive Vice President and CFO, and Scott Carter, President of SPIRE Missouri. Also in the room is Mark Darrell, our Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, who brings over 30 years of experience in legal matters involving FERC and utilities, and also Adam Woodard, Vice President and Treasurer and CFO of our gas utilities. With that, I will turn the call over to Suzanne.

Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. As we begin today's earnings call, I'd like to remind our investors and analysts why our talented employees and leaders work for SPIRE. At FIRE, everything begins and ends with our mission. Answer every challenge, advance every community, and enrich every life through the strength of our energy. This mission is rooted in the belief that the greatest energy in the world comes from one source, people. So we, the people of FIRE, go to work every day with the intention of using our energy for good and having a positive, measurable impact on the world around us. We do this day in and day out, boldly answering the challenges before us and holding firm to our promise of keeping safe and warm and knowing that the strength of our energy keeps us stepping forward, advancing, and innovating for a better tomorrow. Grounded in who we are and our commitment to answer challenges, this past year offers several, including the severe weather of winter storm Uri, modified operations due to the coronavirus pandemic, challenges to the continued operation of the SPIRE SEL pipeline, and most recently, an unprecedented rate order in our Missouri rate review. Through it all, SPIRE employees rise to the challenge and again achieve solid year-end results, operationally and financially. For this and the collective energy that makes us strong, I extend my gratitude and admiration for our employees, the people who deliver great service to our customers, significant contributions to our communities, and consistent growth for our shareholders. That includes posting strong financial and operational performance by our utilities, further strengthening the safety, integrity, and service level of our natural gas distribution system and enhancing our sustainability. Steve Lindsey and Scott Carter will cover these topics in more detail, but I'd like to share my thoughts on the SPIRE STL pipeline situation and the order we've received for our Missouri rate review. Regarding our pipeline, we continue doing everything possible to ensure that this critical infrastructure remains in service through this winter and permanently. As a utility operator for more than 40 years, I understand the physical criticality of the Spire SEL pipeline to the St. Louis region, a pipeline serving hundreds of thousands of homes and several million people in eastern Missouri, people of every socioeconomic level. It's a pipeline that serves hundreds of thousands of businesses, businesses that provide millions of jobs, from startups to large industrials. For every person, every home, and every business, it is our responsibility to make sure this region has safe, reliable natural gas service. This honor is bestowed upon us by the state of Missouri, and we take this responsibility very seriously, as evidenced by our operating results. Last Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, RFERC, held its monthly public hearing, and Fire STL Pipeline was on the agenda. While the continued operation of the pipeline has not yet to be approved, we are encouraged by the Commissioner's statement, committing to act before the temporary approval expires on December 13th. Until we have certainty regarding continued operations, we'll keep being honest and open with our customers and communities of hope that everyone is prepared for winter. Now, turning to our Missouri rate review, the Missouri Public Service Commission orders issued in this case have been highly inconsistent with precedents set in prior rate cases and with how we operated based on those precedents. Considerable concerns still exist, even as the Missouri Public Service Commission issued an amended order on November 12th, providing some clarification on two important issues, capital structure and the treatment of overhead costs. Both the initial and amended orders lack clarity as to exactly what the commission had ordered and what their intentions were. In response, last Friday we filed for reconsideration. Our objective in making this filing is to achieve a fair and reasonable outcome for our customers, communities, and shareholders. As we answer these challenges, we are poised to step forward in fiscal 2022, remaining focused on our mission, our strategy, and in meeting our commitments to our stakeholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve Lindsey for additional comments on SPIRE STL Pipeline, our capital investment program, and SPIRE's operational performance. Steve?