Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. The question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. (Operator instructions) We will take our first question from Michael Worm with BMO brokerage. Please go ahead.
Michael Worm - BMO Capital Markets
Good morning everyone.
Bill Johnson
Good morning Michael.
Michael Worm - BMO Capital Markets
Just a quick question for you, I believe at one point you were talking about on a longer term basis that earning growth would be in the 4% to 5% range although obviously in the near term it will be a bit lower because of the economy’s impact. Is that 4% to 5% range still a good target range?
Mark Mulhern
Yes Michael, it is still a target that we have. We do emphasize it as the long-term target and it is based on the economy returning somewhat close to normal and not having the kind of growth and usage patterns we had over the last decade or so and maybe not as robust as we had over the last year or so but at the moment that is still the target on the longer term assuming some return to normalcy in the economics.
Michael Worm - BMO Capital Markets
Right, thank you.
Operator
(Operator instructions) We will take our question with Edward Heyn [ph] with Catapult Capital Management.
Edward Heyn - Catapult Capital Management
Good morning.
Bill Johnson
Good morning.
Edward Heyn - Catapult Capital Management
Hi (inaudible) I wanted to see if you could give a little more clarification on this Senate Bill 1004, can you talk a little bit about how that may change your CapEx needs in Carolina going forward, it sounds like maybe the scrubbers band will be offset with actually building the gas plants there and kind of the dynamics there?
Bill Johnson
Yes, that is essentially right especially in the early years, say, over the next five years it is a capital substitution kind of plan. The timing maybe a little different, the amounts maybe a little different but basically what he is talking about it instead of putting scrubbers on old, small and somewhat inefficient coal plants you replace that with gas and what this builds out is it allows a truncated certification process so we could build a gas plant in time to avoid building a scrubber and still meet the emission climate. But in the short term, I do not think it changes the capital profile much.
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