♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Calvin Butler, the president and CEO of Exelon Energy Company next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

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♪♪ ♪♪ >> We are so honored to have Calvin Butler, the president and CEO of Exelon, the largest energy company in America.

Welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Dr. Chavis, thank you.

It's an honor to be here.

>> Let's go back.

Where are you originally from?

in St. Louis, Missouri.

Yes, sir.

And then I had a chance to go to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

And so not far from home.

But it was far enough and went back to St. Louis for law school at Washington University in St. Louis.

>> How did you first get into the energy sector?

>> You know, it's interesting.

You know, we talk a lot about mentorship and sponsorship.

When I was a student at Bradley University, my senior year, I was student body president.

So, as you know, as student body president, you're interacting with the board of trustees.

And the chairman of Bradley University's board of trustees was CEO of a utility company in Peoria, Illinois.

And we were sitting in meetings.

We ended up doing a presidential search together.

So we got to see -- he got to see me working, how I rolled up my sleeves and got involved, and he took an interest.

And my first internship after I graduated from college, before going to law school, I interned with his company and we interned -- while I was in law school, I interned another summer, so that exposure to the energy field, utilities, after I graduated from law school, he offered me a position right out of law school to go in-house counsel, which you know is very rare.

You usually need a few years.

But he saw something in me and as they say, my wife and I got married on my third year of law school.

I knew she loved me when we moved back to Peoria, Illinois, and the rest is history.

But that was my first entry into the energy field and it was in the mid '90s, right when we were deregulating.

So I got to cut my teeth when the industry was really changing and it was formative for me.

And to do this in Illinois was such a blessing.

But that was how, through mentorship.

>> So mentorship has been very important in the evolution of your career.

>> Absolutely.

>> Energy is one of the key areas today in the public view and public policy and of course, climate change.

>> Yes.

>> Tell us, as the president and CEO of Exelon, how is your company dealing with the demand for energy, on the one hand, and trying to mitigate the effects of climate change?

>> Well, let me take a step back, if you don't mind, for your viewers that I frame who Exelon is.

>> Yes.

>> Exelon, as you mentioned, and thank you, is the largest energy delivery company in the United States by customer accounts.

We have the privilege and responsibility to serve 10 1/2 million customers, 10 1/2 million customers across some of the largest, most diverse cities in the United States.

You think about Baltimore, Chicago, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and of course, our nation's capital, D.C. >> That's a big responsibility.

>> It is, and we take it very seriously.

And the reason it's important for me to frame the where, because it matters how we show up.

This energy transition that's taking place in our country -- I often say we will change in the energy industry more in the next 10 years than we did in the last 100.

And why do I say that?

Because you, as my customer, are demanding that we do something about climate change, we do something to clean our environment, we do something about inequities in our energy distribution system.

Now, because we're a delivery company, I own no generation, but it matters how my utilities show up.

Because as I like to think about this, this energy transformation can't exist if everyone isn't part of the transformation.

So how I show up for the Second Ward in D.C., I have to show up for the Eighth Ward.

How I show up for downtown Chicago is how I have to show up for the West Side of Chicago.

That is where me sitting here as CEO matters most, because an equitable transition is that important.

And I do believe climate change is a big piece of that, because what we do know is that climate change disproportionately impacts communities of color more than anyone else.

And that's very important when we talk about providing resources where you're educating your children from home, you're working from home, more and more people are using our resource, we have to make sure everyone has that resource available to them.

And that brings about not only the access, but also the affordability of what we're delivering.

So that is at the forefront of everything we do, which is also very difficult because the grid is requiring a lot of capital upgrades.

That 100-year storm is happening every two to three years now, and that requires investment.

And we make investment bills go up.

But how we go about doing it is just as important as what we do.

>> Well, you're in a very key strategic position as one of America's leading corporate leaders.

There seems to be a shift away from diversity, away from inclusion, away from equity.

But as I listen to you, you seem to advocate the importance of having a diverse workforce.

>> I would tell you that diversity, equity and inclusion is a value for Exelon.

And I say it's a value for us because it's important in how we show up.

I talked about the communities that we serve.

We must be representative of our customer base.

>> Yes.

>> Shame on us if we don't look like the people that we serve and they don't feel part of this transformation or this transition, because if they're not part of it, people feel it's being done to them instead of with them.

And if something is a value of yours, you don't change because of political winds.

Values are therefore reason and what I tell my team each and every day, when is it ever wrong to give people opportunity and to show people respect?

When is it ever wrong to allow your employees to come be their authentic selves to work?

When you show that you have a diverse leadership team, business performs better, and, you know, the reports are out there.

So why people are still arguing against the reports, I'll leave that to them.

But I can tell you from my own experience, when I first took over as CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric, I was the only African-American on the leadership team, first African CEO of that utility in a city that's 63% African-American, and that's the first gas utility in the nation.

So put that in perspective.

Now, I'd like to think that I'm that good, but I know that there were others who could have led that organization if the culture was right and the business was receptive to it.

In my tenure as CEO, we were able to promote women and people of color, African-Americans, Latinos, where the team became roughly 60% diverse and the numbers were the highest on all metrics that we measure utility performance -- reliability, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

That is that team.

That wasn't me.

That was those men and women leading that team.

And that was the most diverse team in that company history.

>> I hope the rest of corporate America will look at what you're doing, what you're accomplishing, and hopefully you can follow -- they can follow your lead.

>> Thank you, and we're not just doing it internally either, Dr. Chavis.

How we show up in our communities also matter.

So a couple of years ago we created our community investment fund.

What we've said is that we're going to put our money where our mouth is.

And we know that small businesses are the economic engine in all of our communities.

So we put aside $36 million to invest in businesses that are impacting and working in under-resourced communities.

And we're doing it not only in construction work, legal work, banking.

We're also doing it in startups because the startups bring the fresh, innovative ideas to make us better as well.

>> Tell us how Exelon is dealing with not only the increased demand for energy, but new forms of energy, renewable energy.

Comment on that.

>> First off, if anything that starts with transformation or transforming your business, we have to look internally.

So Exelon came out years ago with its path to clean, saying that we would reduce our business-driven emissions to zero by 2050.

So what does that mean?

By us not being a generator, we had to look at how we were using electricity, gas and fossil fuels internally and what were we doing to drive down our emissions, starting with our vehicle fleet.

We said that we were going to electrify our vehicle fleet 25% by 2025, 50% by 2030.

We were going to look at using idle mitigation on our trucks.

Those big trucks you see sitting on the side of the road.

What were we going to do to shut those down so they're not reducing greenhouse gases into the community?

We also said we were going to look at the technology we were putting on the grid, because we're investing $35 billion in the infrastructure over the next four years.

The type of investments we're making is going to determine whether we're able to achieve that net zero by 2050.

Now, what I can tell you right now is I have a line of sight to achieving that by 80% of it.

The last 20% or so is going to be technology independent -- technology dependent.

I'm investing in startups right now to figure out what that new technology is.

So we're investing in MIT.

We're investing in EPRI.

We're investing in trade association to say what's that new technology of tomorrow that hasn't been thought of today.

So we're doing that to achieve that goal.

So starts with us.

That $35 billion.

Then the second piece, we're working with customers to say, okay, if this is important to you, what do you need from us as your host utility?

Since we don't generate any electricity, what can we do to help you go green?

We're working with what are they looking to do installing solar?

What are we doing in terms of our charging stations?

Are we putting them in all the communities so people think about electric vehicles and not have that range anxiety?

And then I'm also involved with Edison Electric Institute providing industry leadership in terms of making sure that the industry is putting this at the forefront of everything we talk about.

>> What would you say are the benefits of electrification, particularly in automobiles?

>> I would say the number-one benefit of electric vehicles is cleaning up the environment in which our customers live.

We know that greenhouse gases from automobiles is the number-one contributor to impacting the climate in a negative way.

We know that.

>> Well, you're one of the few energy leaders that will talk about that.

>> And we all know it too.

So it's right there.

So what is our responsibility to help reduce those greenhouse gas impact?

And we believe electric vehicles is a right choice.

And I give this current administration a lot of credit in passing of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act, because they set aside funds to put charging stations in communities.

They set aside funds to reduce the cost of electric vehicles, not just new cars, but they also set aside $4,000 if you wanted to buy a used electric vehicle, which had never been done before.

So they're encouraging that economic start and the car ownership.

Now, here's the challenge.

As I say that, and you're relying more and more on the grid, you need a reliable grid.

Because at the end of the day, if you've charged your car and you go out to get in the next day and your power was out, you're not going to be happy.

So my number-one responsibility through all of this is to maintain a reliable and resilient grid.

That is my responsibility, but it's also the opportunity to move this process forward.

So that is why electric vehicles are so important, because we owe it to our customers and our communities that we serve to provide an environment that is getting cleaner each and every day.

>> Protecting the grid that you just talked about, what do you do to make sure that your infrastructure is protected from cyber attacks?

>> You know, we have recent examples that the grid is critical infrastructure, no if, ands or buts about it.

So whether it's physical attack or cyber attack, we know the enemy.

And however you define enemy is always looking to attack the grid.

We invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually on making sure we have systems in place, or ensuring we have systems in place that we can detect something, because it's not a matter of if someone is trying to attack the grid.

It's a matter of when and how often, and it's on a daily basis.

So what we are doing is we've invested in our defensive depth strategy, and I wish I could tell you we had it all nailed down.

But the job is that if and when we're attacked, how quickly we can isolate it and get it back up and running.

So that's what we're doing.

And that is probably the most difficult thing also to frame to your regulators and legislators, because as you have a knowledge and ask the question, they know it, but you don't know how much you need it until something happens.

And saying to regulators, because I have to get reimbursed for everything I invest in the system and that cybersecurity is behind the scene.

You don't feel that in your reliability.

You don't feel that in your customer interaction.

You benefit from it by the grid not going down or your information not being compromised.

So that's what we really have to talk to our regulators and legislators about the importance of cybersecurity defense systems, and we're investing in it heavily.

I'm concerned, however, by the small businesses, whether it's smaller utilities or some of my contractors, who do not have the resources to invest in it, because what we're finding is they're coming -- they're trying to come through, the bad actors, through those smaller businesses because they don't have the same systems in place to detect and isolate.

So it's a very real problem for us.

>> Well, you seem to be very equipped to meet that challenge.

>> Thank you.

>> I want to talk about career opportunities.

>> Yes.

>> Tell us about the career opportunities with Exelon and with energy.

>> Well, I would tell you this is that started out our conversation about how we show up in our communities.

One of the things that I'm most proud of is our workforce development programs.

What I also recognize is not everyone wants a four-year education, a college degree.

So what we started in our workforce development programs across all of our utilities, we've invested about $18 million last year alone.

But we started these programs where we train people from the communities on how to be linemen, customer-service reps for family-sustaining careers where people are making six figures when they finish the training.

For example, since we started this program in 2019, we've hired roughly 1,800 people and we have 90 programs around our entire organization.

And it's tailored to equipping people to have jobs with us or one of our contractors.

And what's nice about it, I'd love for them to come work for us.

But more importantly, I want them to have skills to have a sustainable career.

And so we have those in D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia.

And this is in partnership with labor.

We don't do this in isolation.

We do this in partnership with.

And that's why I think the programs are so effective.

>> So organized labor is working with you... >> Absolutely.

>> ...to make this happen.

What has been the responsiveness of people in D.C., Chicago, Pennsylvania, Baltimore?

Are they responding?

>> Dr. Chavis, I will say it like this.

We're changing lives.

>> Great.

>> We're changing lives every day.

We show up and we recognize we're making a difference in people's lives and in these communities.

I can give you testimonials, whether it's young people or people who are transitioning careers that said, "I never knew Pepco was a place I can work because I didn't know anybody who worked at Pepco.

I never knew I could work at BGE because in my neighborhood, no one worked at the utility."

So we're changing lives and we're creating opportunity.

That's one.

And then what we also have done, we've reached out into the high schools.

We saw a need for young women to be exposed to science, technology, engineering and math.

So we created a week-long program for young girls in high school, 10th and 11th grade, to be taken to the University of Maryland to just be exposed to STEM at the root level and create excitement for what they can do.

And we have our executives come in.

I'm talking to them tomorrow.

I talked to the STEM Academy in Chicago two weeks ago.

It's so important to create excitement about the opportunities.

Once again, I tell them all the time, love for you to work for Exelon but it's not about working for an Exelon company.

It's about you doing something bigger and knowing that you can and when you have a network of people that will support you throughout your journey.

And that's what we're trying to do.

>> You mentioned earlier the impact of the Inflation Act bill, the infrastructure bill.

Tell us broadly how important public policy impacts what you do.

>> I would say it starts with public policy because the regulatory legislative process drives our ability to invest capital.

And what the IRA and the IIJA did, it catapulted communities in moving faster to invest and to create opportunities for investment.

I talked earlier about affordability, how critical it is.

Well, when you have billions of dollars ready to be put to work, and I can partner that with the capital that I'm investing, I reduce that customer's bill and that is the opportunity there.

Policy and states are very important.

I like to say that is the engine in everything I do because if they don't view -- if regulators and legislators don't view it as important, I'm not going to do it because I must be reimbursed for the dollar that I'm investing.

That's why it's important.

So therefore, it's incumbent upon me to tell the story of why, to tell the story why cybersecurity is important, why raising the level of a substation because flooding is continuing to happen on a regular basis, why raising that substation floor is so important, why changing out poles from wood to steel that they can withstand 80-miles-an-hour winds is so important.

Why?

Because the winds have increased, why it's important for me to have a more robust veg management program because it's staying warmer and no other...impacts reliability than the trees.

Everybody loves their trees until their power go out.

Being proactive is how we must communicate to our regulators, and that's difficult for them.

Alignment, aligning policy with action is so critical because you can't say you want all this and then not want to pay for it, and that's our challenge.

But it's also our opportunity.

>> As you sit in a very strategic place, what gives you your greatest hope for the future?

>> Despite all of our differences, it comes to a recognition that people want a better future for their kids.

And when you parse through all the noise around whatever you want to debate about, they want a better future for their families.

As a business leader, are the decisions right to move this economy and these communities forward?

And if we can -- we may disagree on the how, but we can agree on the end goal.

And that's where good minds come together.

So that's -- my view is that at the core we all want the same thing.

That's what excites me.

The challenge is slowing -- getting everybody to slow down and sit around the table to have a truthful debate, not an emotional debate, but a debate about what will actually work.

And we can agree on the core of that.

And that's what encourages me.

That's why I get to show up every day to run this company and some of these cities and the greatest cities in the U.S. because I see that the passion to move things forward is there.

And my job, our job is to ensure that people sit down long enough, put the rhetoric aside and say, let's commit to doing better.

That's what encourages me and that's my greatest hope.

>> So investing in communities, you get a return on the investment?

>> Absolutely.

You -- What you invest in today will dictate where you're -- what we're all experiencing tomorrow.

>> Calvin Butler, president and CEO of Exelon, thank you for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Dr. Chavis, thank you for having me.

And it's always good to see you, sir, and wishing you the best.

>> For more information about "The Chavis Chronicles" and our guests, visit our website at thechavischronicles.com.

Also, follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, diverse representation and perspectives, equity, and inclusion is critical to meeting the needs of our colleagues, customers, and communities.

We are focused on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion both inside our company and in the communities where we live and work.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives and in our communities.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute.

Through API's Energy Excellence program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural gas and oil industry around the world.

Learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed health, and happiness live as long as you do.

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