Though this is our second Analyst Day in less than 12 months, we feel that it is warranted as we are now well into our strategic transition and we want to use that forum to update our investors on our longer-term business plan, earnings capacity, financial metrics and the net zero emissions target that we will be sharing with you.
We announced an updated five-year strategy that prioritizes investment in our regulated businesses and boosted our planned capital spending by about 25% to $16 billion.
We instituted a 10% utility rate base CAGR, well above our peer group average of 8%.
That rate base growth then supported an increased long-term utility earnings per share target growth rate of 6% to 8%, which is also above the consensus peer average of 6%.
To efficiently fund our growth, while repairing our balance sheet, we announced the sale of our Arkansas and Oklahoma gas LDCs at a landmark earnings multiple of 2.5 times rate base.
And we announced a commitment to a 1% to 2% annual reduction in O&M over the five years to keep our customer rate growth manageable.
Today, we are raising our 2021 Utility earnings per share guidance range to $1.25 to $1.27.
This 8% growth projection in '21 puts us at the high end of our 6% to 8% Utility earnings per share annual growth target.
And as a reminder, this increase in guidance is after the dilution impact of the 18% increase in our share count that we experienced in 2020.
And as you would expect, we are also reaffirming both our long-term 6% to 8% Utility earnings per share annual growth target and 10% rate base compound annual growth rate target.
This 10% rate base growth also exceeds the average 8% rate base growth of our peer group.
For the second quarter of 2021, we reported strong results, including $0.28 of Utility earnings per share compared to $0.18 for the second quarter of 2020.
The bottom line for me is to focus on the reality that our Utility earnings per share is expected to grow 8% this year over last year, and then target 6% to 8% growth from there.
We are already on track to save over $40 million in total O&M costs this year alone, while maintaining our focus on safety.
This is almost 3% of our annual O&M cost.
We are still absolutely committed to our continuous improvement cost management efforts in our target of 1% to 2% annual reductions in O&M.
In fact, as a result of our excellent 2021 results to date, we were in the fortunate place to be able to already make a management decision and begin pulling recurring O&M work forward from 2022 into the last six months of this year and still be able to hit the 8% Utility earnings per share growth for this year.
Overall, we saw about 2% customer growth for electric and 1% for natural gas for the first six months of the year when compared to the prior year.
The growth is supported by the highest level of new home starts in Houston since 2005.
We have invested approximately $1.5 billion for the first six months of this year and are still on track to invest approximately $3.4 billion for the full year 2021.
More importantly, we now have better line of sight to additional capital investment opportunities beyond the five-year $16 billion investment plan we outlined on our Analyst Day.
Based on initial analysis, these legislative changes provide support to increase our five-year capital investment plan by at least $500 million.
Now this is on top of the $1 billion in reserve capital investment opportunities we previously identified during our last Analyst Day, but were not incorporated into that plan.
Just as important, we will have the ability to efficiently fund $1.1 billion of these incremental opportunities.
This is primarily due to the incremental proceeds expected from the sale of our gas LDCs and the execution of tax mitigation strategies, which Jason will discuss shortly as well as additional debt, assuming a roughly 50-50 cap structure.
And finally, to reiterate what we said when we announced the news of these two transactions in our last quarterly call, completing these transactions will not change our industry-leading 6% to 8% Utility earnings per share growth target or 10% rate base compound annual growth rate target.
With the approval from the Minnesota Public Utility Commission, a utility can invest up to 1.75% of our gross operating revenue in the state annually.
This opportunity increases up to 4% of gross operating revenues by 2033.
On a GAAP earnings per share basis, we reported $0.37 for the second quarter of 2021 compared to $0.11 for the second quarter of 2020.
Looking at slide four, we reported $0.36 of non-GAAP earnings per share for the second quarter of 2021 compared to $0.21 for the second quarter of 2020.
Our Utility earnings per share was $0.28 for the second quarter of 2021, while Midstream investments contributed another $0.08.
This included favorable impacts for the second quarter of 2021, inclusive of $0.05 attributable to deferred state tax benefits.
Of this $0.05 in total, $0.03 of the benefit was related to legislation in Louisiana that eliminated the NOL carryforward limitation period.
The remaining $0.02 of benefit was due to Oklahoma's revision of the corporate tax rate, which is a favorable driver in our midstream segment.
Our 2020 Utility earnings per share included a negative $0.06 impact due to COVID.
Beyond those onetime items, other notable drivers for the second quarter of 2021 include customer growth and rate recovery, which contributed about $0.04 of favorable impacts as well as miscellaneous revenue contributing another $0.02 of favorable impacts.
These were partially offset by a negative $0.02 impact from the share dilution resulting from the May 2020 issuance and a negative $0.03 for unfavorable O&M variance.
The bottom line is we expect to grow our Utility earnings per share 8% this year and target 6% to 8% thereafter.
The key takeaway is we are delivering on our planned efficiencies of over $40 million in cost reductions for the year, and are now beginning to accelerate O&M work from 2022.
Our disciplined execution and tailwinds led us to raise our Utility earnings per share guidance range to $1.25 to $1.27 per share for the full year, which is at the high end of our 6% to 8% annual Utility earnings per share growth target.
Beyond 2021, I want to reiterate, we are focused on growing Utility earnings per share at 6% to 8% each and every year.
Based on our first look, we have confidence that new Texas legislation will support at least $500 million of incremental capital investment opportunities over just our current five-year plan.
Regarding the previously identified incremental $1 billion, we may be able to deploy above our 2020 Analyst Day plan of $16 billion.
As we reported last quarter, and Dave reinforced, we will receive an incremental $300 million of proceeds above our original plan once the gas LDC sale closes.
While we are still refining this study, we have confidence that the benefit will generate at least $1 billion in incremental tax deductions, resulting in at least $250 million in additional cash to us and likely more.
The combination of these improved sources of funding, coupled with debt, that will be authorized under our regulatory capital structure, supports incremental investments of at least $1.1 billion.
We closed our $1.7 billion debt issuance in May, which was comprised of $700 million of three-year floating rate notes, $500 million of five-year fixed rate notes at 1.45% and $500 million of 10-year fixed rate notes at 2.65%.
The proceeds was to refinance $1.2 billion of near-term maturities at the parent as well as to pay down commercial paper.
Our current liquidity remains strong at $2.2 billion, including available borrowings under our short-term credit facilities and unrestricted cash.
Our long-term FFO to debt objective is between 14% and 15%, aligning with the Moody's methodology and is consistent with the expectations of the rating agencies.
With important capital investment to deliver needed improvements for our customers, our rate base growth target at 10% substantially outstrips the peer average at about 8%.
Our resulting annual Utility earnings per share growth target of 6% to 8% is strong.
Customer growth of 2% is just the level our peers would celebrate.
Coupled with O&M reduction of 1% to 2% a year, this creates a lot of headroom for needed capital investment.
Our five-year plan includes 1% to 2% cost reduction every year.
Our plan for this year is for a fast start, down more than $40 million or 3%.
The cost reductions, favorable tax changes, lower financing cost, economic recovery and more allow us to reinvest $20 million for our customers now and possibly more later.

Summary:
We instituted a 10% utility rate base CAGR, well above our peer group average of 8%.
Today, we are raising our 2021 Utility earnings per share guidance range to $1.25 to $1.27.
On a GAAP earnings per share basis, we reported $0.37 for the second quarter of 2021 compared to $0.11 for the second quarter of 2020.
Looking at slide four, we reported $0.36 of non-GAAP earnings per share for the second quarter of 2021 compared to $0.21 for the second quarter of 2020.
Our disciplined execution and tailwinds led us to raise our Utility earnings per share guidance range to $1.25 to $1.27 per share for the full year, which is at the high end of our 6% to 8% annual Utility earnings per share growth target.