Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson, who will lead the nation's biggest utility company when the merger between Raleigh-based Progress and Charlotte's Duke Energy is completed later this year, is suddenly in demand by the national media.

Johnson has taken advantage of his increased national profile to act as the electric industry's ambassador to a broader audience, extending far beyond the borders of North Carolina. In his speeches, Johnson has warned of higher energy costs and the perils of misguided regulation.

Just in the past week, Johnson, 57, has granted interviews to Fox News, Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Forbes.com. More media interviews are expected this week as Johnson continues making national appearances at industry conferences and events.

In the filmed Forbes.com interview, Johnson laid out the rationale for the Duke-Progress merger as a matter of economic survival.

"We're a small company compared to the capital program we have ahead of us," Johnson told interviewer Josh Wolfe. "The capital outlay ahead of us is just so daunting that we weren't big enough to do it [alone]."

The Triangle routinely makes so many "best of" lists, it gets a bit repetitive.

So it's noteworthy that a new list doesn't give us much to brag about. Forbes.com's "Best Bang for the Buck Cities" puts this region at No. 21, behind places like Omaha, Neb.; Des Moines, Iowa; Wichita, Kan.; and Syracuse, N.Y.

The list ranks top metropolitan areas with solid housing markets, stable employment, affordable cost of living and quick commutes.

Omaha came in at No. 1, followed by Little Rock, Ark., and Jackson, Miss.

"These are sleepy little markets that have fallen under the radar screen in terms of turbulence in housing," says Kermit Baker, a senior researcher at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "They didn't go through much of a boom or bust."

The Greensboro-High Point area came in at No. 30 and Charlotte was No. 56.

The list used data including foreclosures as a percentage of home prices, vacancies, unemployment rates, a three-year job growth forecast, a three-year home price forecast, housing affordability, median real estate taxes and median travel time to work.

Read the full list here.