Who here thinks utilities are not big enough or have too little power and influence?

At Progress Energy's final annual meeting, it's all in for nuclear power

By Robert Trigaux, Times Business Columnist
In Print: Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Shareholders of Progress Energy gather Wednesday morning in the company's home town of Raleigh, N.C., for the last annual meeting before the merger later this year into larger Duke Energy.

Combined, the companies become the country's largest electricity provider and a top advocate of nuclear power — despite soaring costs to build nuke plants. The merger also comes just as the world rethinks the virtues of nuclear energy after Japan's nuclear disaster, the biggest since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown.

For Tampa Bay area ratepayers, it's the latest tale of the bigger devouring the big. In 2000, Progress Energy gobbled up St. Petersburg's Florida Power, arguing utilities must get larger to compete. We hear a similar message in Duke's $13 billion-plus purchase of Progress Energy. Want nuclear power? Better get deeper pockets.

"If we look at the capital expenditures in front of us and if we want to be a player in new nuclear construction, which we think is important, we're just not big enough to do that efficiently," Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson told the Associated Press.

On their own...

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/at-progress-energys-final-annual-meeting-its-all-in-for-nuclear-power/1168665

But we have hydro power up the wazoo here, a little wind, and some nuclear, so :shrug:

The article is discussing a trend in utility ownership of the Investor Owned class, a group that controls about 75% of the nation's electricity.

They are using the high cost of building nuclear fission as a justification for becoming ever larger (and gaining all the power that entails).