RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 15, 2002 -- The North Carolina Agribusiness Council named Progress Energy as recipient of the 2002 Governor's Award for Distinguished Service to Agribusiness in the category of Supply to Agribusiness.
The announcement was made at the recent North Carolina Agribusiness Council Annual Meeting.
Progress Energy's support of value-added agribusiness and production agriculture started in 1960 and has been led by Joe Gregory for almost 30 years. The company provides professional engineering service assistance on various projects and also supports youth organizations like 4-H and Future Farmers of America.
"Progress Energy is committed to the economic development of agribusiness in North Carolina," said Joe Gregory, agribusiness development executive at Progress Energy. "We regularly work with the North Carolina Agribusiness Council, and we are honored to have received the organization's distinguished Governor's Award."
Examples of Progress Energy's involvement in agribusiness economic development in North Carolina include: the Fish Barn at North Carolina State University, which supports aquaculture production technology; an Iceberg plant with a post-harvest cooling system that helps increase the shelf life for vegetables; a project that will make wheat straw into a pelleted bedding material for horses; and continued development of pilot systems for alternative waste management handling for hog and poultry operations in the Carolinas.
CP&L's past president and CEO, Shearon Harris, was instrumental in the formation of the North Carolina Agribusiness Council in 1969. The council's goals are: to increase awareness of North Carolina's agribusiness industry and its vital importance to the overall economic well- being of the state and nation; to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the state's agribusiness and the potential for future growth; to promote greater unity of interest among different agribusiness enterprises, including producers, processors, suppliers, financiers, transporters, wholesalers and retailers; and to make North Carolina a leader among states in agribusiness by increasing employment and expanding business opportunities.
Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250 diversified energy company with more than 21,800 megawatts of generation capacity and $8 billion in annual revenues.
The company's holdings include two electric utilities (CP&L and Florida Power) and a natural gas distribution company (NCNG) serving more than 2.9 million customers across the Carolinas and Florida. Progress Energy also includes non-regulated operations (Progress Ventures) covering merchant generation, energy marketing and trading, fuel extraction (Progress Fuels), rail services (Progress Rail) and broadband capacity (Progress Telecom). For more information about Progress Energy, visit the company's web site at http://www.progress-energy.com.
Source: Progress Energy, Inc.
