‘I believe this merger and acquisition brands North Carolina globally. I think people in many other economies around the world are noticing what’s happening today. You have two of the most dynamic leaders in the country in Bill Johnson and Jim Rogers. … I know this is perhaps a hard day for the people of Wake County. I was in Winston-Salem and Charlotte when the mergers of the banks happened. And I know that what’s gold for some is not for others immediately. I think the way this is being done will at the end of the day benefit both communities.”
Gov. Bev Perdue
‘Quite frankly, I don’t know a lot about the details at all. Like a lot of people in Raleigh, I kind of wonder what’s going to be left here. I think that’s a big question on people’s minds.”
William Cavanaugh,
Progress Energy CEO, 1996-2004
‘As a matter of practicality, the utility needs to have the community prosper and so being a go-to player on certain community projects is endemic to the assignment.
“I think the culture of Progress has always been very community friendly. They’ve always done a good job in terms of providing services to the community. I would think that those are aspects that will continue going forward.”
Harvey Schmitt,
president and CEO of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce
‘I wish they hadn’t done the merger, because it means we lose a headquarters company. But it’s good for the state. If they felt like they had to merge with somebody in order to be able to put in the nuclear plants that they need, then I’d rather it be Duke than anybody else. The state is better off as a result, I hope. But Raleigh will have some short-term suffering I’m afraid.”
Frank Daniels Jr.,
former News & Observer publisher
‘Hopefully, what might come from this would be that Duke moves strongly to become the company that CEO Jim Rogers has been claiming they are. He claims to be a visionary about climate change and the need to move to clean energy. And he’s doing a lot of clean energy, but it’s not in these states. They’re doing it in the west and the Midwest and buying up a lot of solar and wind. But here, they’re actually holding up clean technologies because they’re dreaming of nukes. Rogers has a chance now to move ahead. He could be heroic in terms of cutting greenhouse emissions and helping avert what the scientists are calling an ‘extreme crisis’ with climate change. … Duke has a chance. They could be the game-changer, internationally, if they want to. But so far, it’s been too much rhetoric and PR from Rogers.”
Jim Warren
executive director, North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network in Durham
‘Downtown has thrived over the past couple of years without many company headquarters. And so I think the impact that the loss of a headquarters could have on a different community that may be more dependent on one company, that’s just not the case here. I take comfort, as an economic developer, knowing that the economy of downtown Raleigh is well diversified.”
David Diaz,
president and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance
‘Obviously it’s a loss of prestige for us in a sense. At the same time this is the natural growth of a company of this nature.
“In the short term it wouldn’t surprise me if Duke Energy actually increased the community support here in order to enhance its brand. That was done by Progress in St. Petersburg at the time of the acquisition of Florida Progress. Over a period of years that could be different, but in the next three to five years I would expect we’d see similar if not greater community support to put a positive image on the Duke Energy brand. If it were a company truly leaving the market that would be one thing. Its customers are here and its business is here. It’s remaining in the market. It’s just changing its corporate structure.”
Charles Meeker,
Raleigh mayor
