Duke And Progress Energy To Merge

Duke Energy and Progress Energy officials announced today they are merging their companies. Duke Energy will be the name of the combined company. Its headquarters will be in Charlotte and it will become the largest utility in the country. Progress Energy C-E-O William Johnson will be the new Duke Energy leader. He says the merger is good for North Carolina:

"You know, this combination allows us to do something unique, which is to operate our generating system as one company in the Carolinas. And that efficiency in running the generation system will provide, we think, benefits of 600 to 800 million dollars for customers in the Carolinas for the next five years."

Johnson would not go into detail about possible lay-offs as a result of the merger. He said only that the company expects to lose workers through attrition and retirement.