• Duke Energy Chief Executive Jim Rogers spoke in person and by closed-circuit television to employees Wednesday about the company's direction after its merger with Progress Energy and the ouster one day later of  Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson as its chief. Tuesday, he had testified to the North Carolina Utilities Commission about the switch.
• Rogers invited "tough questions" from employees and reiterated that Duke's board of directors had doubts about Johnson's management capabilities and Progress' nuclear power plants.
• An attorney released a statement defending Johnson on Tuesday, stating, "The fact that [Johnson] is held in the highest regard by his peers in the utility industry and in the North Carolina business community speaks volumes about his leadership and business capabilities."

From the article:

One day after telling North Carolina utilities regulators that Duke Energy Corp. didn't mislead them about the company's management structure after its merger with Progress Energy Inc., Chief Executive Jim Rogers faced a tougher audience Wednesday.

Thousands of Progress Energy employees in four states packed ballrooms and meeting rooms to hear directly from Rogers about why their former chief executive, Bill Johnson, was suddenly removed as president and CEO of the combined utility less than an hour after they merged last week. ...