Before you go …
If you like what you are reading and believe in independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism like ours—journalism the way it should be—please contribute to keep us going. Reporting like this isn’t free to produce and we cannot do this alone. Thank you!
Reader photo by Tad Little
Smoking
Lake Julian Park, Arden, N.C., Jan. 29, 2011
Photographer’s notebook
I was driving down Long Shoals Road, when I passed Lake Julian and noticed the mist over the water. I stopped at Lake Julian Park to try to capture the image. This particular scene caught my eye because of the contrast between the soft beauty of the lake and the rising mist in the morning light with the hard lines of the Progress Energy power plant and sign in the water. The picture was taken at f/25 at 1/30-second exposure, focal length 17 mm.
Tad Little, Greensboro
More photos by Tad
Want your photo featured on carolinapublicpress.org? Post them to our Flickr group or send your image to submission@carolinapublicpress.org.
Editor’s note:
Raleigh-based Progress Energy emerged in the news when, on Jan. 10, it and Charlotte-based Duke Power announced a proposal to merge (Progress Energy press release here). If approved, the $13.7 merger will create the nation’s largest utility, to be known as Duke Power, and will serve about 7.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
This coal-fired plant pictured in Tad’s image has been in Arden since 1964 and is the largest taxpayer in Buncombe County, according to the plant’s website. The company currently has about 10,000 full-time employees and serves about 3.1 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.
The merger is subject reviews and approvals of shareholders and a variety of state and federal agencies, including the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Lawsuits by a variety of consumer and environmental groups have already been filed and consumers have expressed concerns about rate hikes. According to a news release from Progress Energy, it and Duke Power want the merger to be completed by the end of the year, and the company will then be based in Charlotte.
The two companies currently provide service to customers in all 17 Western North Carolina counties. Progress Energy serves customers in Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey counties. Duke Energy serves customers in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Macon, Polk, Rutherford, Swain and Transylvania counties.
Related coverage, elsewhere:
Investors warm to big deals (Wall Street Journal, Feb. 11)
Fast-track financing challenged (Charlotte Observer, Feb. 10)
Duke, Progress merger faces lawsuits (News & Record, Jan. 20)
Duke Energy set to buy Progress Energy (News & Observer, Jan. 9)
Coalition of consumer, environmental groups call on Duke/Progress Energy to stop rate hikes (Mtn. Xpress, Feb. 8)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.
