While weather was $0.03 below normal for the quarter, we remain within our previously reported guidance range.
As we move ahead, I'm pleased to note that in June, OGE received its 19th EEI Emergency Response awards since 1999 for our power restoration efforts during the 2020 New Year's Eve snowstorm.
We've been recognized with this highest national distinction for emergency recovery 11 times for major storms affecting our system and eight times for assisting others.
Systemwide, growth in customer load is driving $75 million of increased capital investments.
Investments include substation enhancements, projects at Tinker Air Force Base and upgrades of our 69 kV line to support the load of larger and growing customers.
As you can see on slide five, our resource needs are driven by expected load growth as well as the retirement of aging, less efficient, less reliable gas plants that were built more than 50 years ago.
We expect to retire approximately 850 megawatts over the next five to six years.
We plan to execute this in 100 to 150-megawatt annual increments, beginning with solar over the next five to six years to really smooth out the customer impacts.
When complete, our overall carbon intensity will drop by more than 6% and the overall fleet efficiency will improve even more.
Our securitization filing in Oklahoma is on track for recovery approximately 85% of the total cost associated with February's winter storm year.
We expect to achieve savings of more than 100 megawatts in demand, nearly 500,000 megawatt hours of energy saved, helping us to efficiently operate our generation fleet as we grow our customer base and maintain affordability.
With the first half of the year now behind us, we expect 2021 weather normalized load to be more than 2% above 2020 levels.
In addition, our strong customer growth of 1.3% reflects the combination of highly affordable rates and our ability to service commercial expansion in our markets, which leads me to our business and economic development activities.
Last quarter, we discussed the additional 50 megawatts of load we will add by the end of the year due to our slate of business and economic development activities at that time.
I'm pleased to say that the pace of these activities has ramped up even further, enabling us to increase that estimate up to 75 megawatts, of which 36 megawatts is already connected, and we're far from done.
Through the first half of 2021, the new projects secured by our teams have helped to add more than 4,100 new jobs, all across our service territory.
One such project, Pierre Foods, is completing a 200,000 square foot regional fulfillment center in Oklahoma City, adding 10 megawatts of load and 550 jobs.
And affordability remains a key competitive advantage, that is evident in our business and economic development activity as well as customer growth, which combined have us on track for sustained load growth of approximately 1% going forward with still many opportunities ahead.
Oklahoma's unemployment rate in June was 3.7% compared to the national average of 5.9%.
In Oklahoma City, the largest metro area in our service territory, had a rate of just 3.7% in June, the third lowest from a large metropolitan series.
Similarly, Fort Smith, Arkansas, had a rate of 4.4% in June.
For the second quarter of 2021, we achieved net income of $113 million or $0.56 per share as compared to $86 million or $0.43 per share in 2020.
At the utility, OGE's second quarter results were $0.03 higher than 2020 despite mild weather, primarily driven by higher revenues from the recovery of our capital investments and improved load from customer growth, partially offset by higher depreciation on a growing asset base.
Our natural gas midstream operation results were $0.16 per share in the second quarter compared to $0.10 in 2020.
Once again, we are also pleased to see customer growth coming in strong at 1.3% year-over-year.
Furthermore, our commercial and industrial customer classes are showing real momentum with year-over-year load growth of approximately 12% and 9% in the second quarter more than compensating for the lower residential volumes we are experiencing as employees begin to return to the workplace.
Overall, we saw a 5.7% total load increase during the quarter, generally in line with our expectations.
For the full year, we still expect total weather normal load results to be more than 2% above 2020 levels.
As discussed during our Q1 call, we began the year with a midpoint earnings per share target of $1.81 per share, but immediately faced a net headwind from the February weather event of $0.07 per share.
As I'll speak to in a moment, in June, we were a net receiver of cash from the second round of SPP settlements, reducing the earnings per share impact of the Guaranteed Flat Bill program by $0.01 per share.
Thus, as of June 30, the net impact to earnings from the February weather event is $0.06 per share.
When you exclude the weather impact associated with the winter storm, unfavorable weather has been approximately a $0.05 loss year-to-date.
To date, we have identified and activated $0.07 to $0.09 of mitigation initiatives, including continued O&M agility.
Based on our progress to date, we remain within our earnings per share guidance range of $1.76 to $1.86 per share for full year 2021.
Our business fundamentals are strong, and we continue to have great confidence in our ability to grow OGE at a 5% long-term earnings per share growth rate through 2025.
Following the additional SPP resettlement that took place in June, the overall impact of fuel and purchase power costs incurred have been reduced by approximately $100 million.
As of June 30, fuel and purchase power costs of approximately $850 million were recorded on the balance sheet.
In Oklahoma, $755 million has now been deferred to a regulatory asset with the initial carrying cost based on the effective cost of debt financing.
In Arkansas, the updated fuel and purchase power costs deferred are approximately $92 million.
As we noted previously, we initially secured a $1 billion credit commitment agreement that provided short-term funding for our incurred fuel and purchase power costs.
In May, the term loan was refinanced by issuing $1 billion of senior notes to serve as a bridge until securitization takes place.
These two year notes carry an average rate of 63 basis points and are callable at par after six months, providing flexibility for early repayment depending on the timing of the securitization transactions.
We believe our metrics will return to our targeted 18% to 20% level once securitization is complete.
Finally, we remain confident in our ability to drive long-term OGE earnings per share growth of 5% based off the midpoint of 2021 guidance of $1.81 per share, which, when coupled with a stable and growing dividend, offers investors an attractive total return proposition.

Summary:
Systemwide, growth in customer load is driving $75 million of increased capital investments.
I'm pleased to say that the pace of these activities has ramped up even further, enabling us to increase that estimate up to 75 megawatts, of which 36 megawatts is already connected, and we're far from done.
For the second quarter of 2021, we achieved net income of $113 million or $0.56 per share as compared to $86 million or $0.43 per share in 2020.
Based on our progress to date, we remain within our earnings per share guidance range of $1.76 to $1.86 per share for full year 2021.