Is Duke Energy's CEO on the short list?

A Washington Post article this morning lists Jim Rogers as a potential member of President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet: 

There's no shortage of names floating for energy secretary, a job where the majority of the workload in the past has been dealing with nuclear waste, nuclear weapons handling and the various nuclear laboratories. Even so, a cast of luminaries have been mentioned, including Duke Energy executive Jim Rogers, former Energy Department official Dan Reicher, former top Clinton White House environmental aide Kathleen McGinty, FedEx chairman and Republican backer Fred Smith, New Jersey utility chief executive Ralph Izzo, and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).

Note: The Fred Smith mentioned above is not the former gubernatorial candidate. 

Hat Tip: Facing South

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue will hold an economic roundtable in Charlotte Tuesday.

The event will be chaired by Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Bank of America executive Cathy Bessant and UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Dr. Phil Dubois. It will be moderated by UNC-Chapel Hill professor Ferrell Guillory.

It is the first in a series of roundtables Perdue has planned.

After an overview of current local, state and national economic conditions, the group will have a roundtable discussion with Perdue.

The roundtable will take place at 10 a.m. at UNC-Charlotte's Harris Alumni Center. 

Walter Dalton received $1.5 million in contributions by the end of June.

The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor received $255,305 in contributions during the second quarter of the year, according to his most recent campaign finance report.

Major donors included Crandall Bowles, Greensboro executive Joseph Bryan Jr., Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Franklin Street Partners executive Robert Eubanks, Capstrat CEO Ken Eudy and developer Mack Pearsall. 

He also received contributions from political action committees such as the Bank of America PAC, the Baxter Healthcare PAC, the N.C. Home Builders Association, DominionPAC, the N.C. Restaurant Association, the N.C. Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Wal-Mart's PAC and the N.C. Trucking Association.

He also spent $637,602 in the second quarter, leaving him with $177,357 in cash on hand.

Beverly Perdue called for no more coal plants in North Carolina.

As part of an energy plan released Monday, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said that the recently approved Cliffside coal plant near Charlotte should be the "end of an era," the Charlotte Observer reports.

No new coal plants are currently planned, however. Progress Energy imposed a two-year moratorium on coal plants last May.

And on Monday, Duke Energy's CEO says he won't build any more coal-fired power plants here.

At the Emerging Issues Forum, Jim Rogers said any future plants would have to offer technology that stores carbon dioxide emissions underground—something not available in North Carolina because of its geology, the Observer .

"That plant is just a step, a transition," Rogers told the audience. "We need it now to make that transformation to a low-carbon world."

Instead, Rogers said the company will likely build coal plants in the Midwest and nuclear plants in the South and transmit the electricity back here.

Protesters greeted attendees of the Emerging Issues Forum.

Just outside the front door of N.C. State's McKimmon Center, a small group of members of environmental group N.C. WARN held signs saying "Dupe Energy."

Another sign was specifically aimed at Duke Energy head Jim Rogers. "Cancel Cliffside" it pleaded.

The Cliffside coal-fired power plant was recently given final approval by state regulators, though environmentalists have argued it will contribute to global warming and air pollution in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

At the door, N.C. WARN members handed out a one-page memo headlined "Green-Scam Alert."

It argued that Duke has "misled the public, media and elected leaders" on its concerns about global warming as well as the environmental impacts of the Cliffside plant. 

This year's forum is focusing on global warming and energy conservation.