Public hearings continue all day Wednesday in Raleigh on the proposed merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy.

The N.C. Utilities Commission started the hearings yesterday with impassioned pleas from residents to block the merger, followed by statements from Duke CEO Jim Rogers and Progress CEO Bill Johnson. The agency, which is expected to approve the merger, has set aside the rest of the week to hear from experts.

The North Carolina electric companies want to create the nation's biggest utility with 7.1 million customers in six states. Rogers and Johnson laid out the rationale for the merger Tuesday as a strategy to create the financial heft needed to embark on multi-billion dollar construction projects.

The chief executives of Duke Energy and Progress Energy said this afternoon their companies plan to seek rate increases soon to meet a deadline to recover severance payments that will be paid to employees who lose their jobs as a result of the utilities' merger.

The public hearings on the proposed merger between Progress Energy and Duke Energy got underway this morning with dozens of residents waiting their turn to speak in a standing-room only hearing room.

The proposed merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy just got more interesting.

State regulators who will begin public hearings on the merger tomorrow morning said today they will consider arguments about the broader economic impacts of the merger, including possible remedies for the hundreds of job losses the merger will cause.

The state's two biggest electric companies had argued such issues were out of bounds in a merger proceeding and should not be allowed. The utilities are planning to combine into the nation's biggest electric utility, with 7.1 million customers in six states.

Critics countered that it's essential to consider the consequences of the 2,000 job cuts the companies plan as part of their consolidation. North Carolina's jobless rate is above the national average and the economy is still sputtering more than a year after the recession ended.

"The commission is taking a broad perspective in assessing the costs and benefits of the proposed merger," said Progress spokesman Mike Hughes. "That is certainly the commission’s prerogative."

Residents and visitors within 10 miles of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant will be treated tomorrow to a full blast of the plant's emergency sirens.

Progress Energy will conduct an annual full-volume test of all 83 sirens between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. The annual test will sound very much like a real emergency, except that the sirens will wail only 3 minutes at a time.

All U.S. nuclear plants are required to have emergency warning systems within a 10-mile emergency planning zone. Shearon Harris conducts four tests a year for about 5 seconds and one test for 3 minutes.

The sirens used by Raleigh-based Progress Energy, which operates the plant, sound like air raid warnings. At 100 feet, they generate 127 decibels, comparable to a human scream or a marching band.

The performance problems that have hobbled Progress Energy's H.B. Robinson nuclear plant will cost the Raleigh utility $24 million.

The Raleigh-based electric utility agreed not to make North Carolina customers pay $24 million in costs associated with the outages, fires and other mishaps that caused the plant to be shut down almost six months of 2010.

On Thursday Progress and the Public Staff, the state's consumer advocate, announced an agreement that will require Progress to eat those costs.

The Public Staff said that the costs associated with the outages were caused by substandard performance. As a result of the forced shutdowns at the Robinson plant, Progress had to spend extra to generate electricity at less efficient power plants and to buy power from other utilities.

State labor officials today fined Progress Energy $31,500 for safety violations that contributed to the death of an employee in March at a power plant in Wilmington.

The N.C. Department of Labor cited the Raleigh-based electric utility for nine serious safety infractions in violation of the state's Occupational Safety and Health Act, commonly known as OSHA.

In the accident, Corey Rogers, a 24-year-old technician, was killed by a hydrogen explosion while he was performing maintenance at the Sutton coal-fired plant. 

"The penalties are in no way designed to make up for loss of life," the labor department said. "Fines are issued to penalize the offending employer but also to get the attention of other employers with similar work environments."

Opponents are already jockeying for legal advantage in next week's public hearings on the proposed merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy.

The two power companies today asked the N.C. Utilities Commission to quash some objections raised by critics of the merger as irrelevant. If the companies prevail, the environmental groups would be barred from arguing some of their points.

The hearings are set to begin Tuesday, with Progress CEO Bill Johnson and Duke CEO Jim Rogers expected to testify on the first day. The hearings could last four days to give time to hear witnesses and listen to experts and go through cross-examinations.

More pre-trial filings are due later this week to the utilities commission as the two utilities seek to convince the utilities commission to rule critics' objections out of bounds.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is the latest to chime in as a critic of the planned merger between Duke Energy and Progress energy. The labor union wants assurances that the companies keep their promise not to lay off any linemen, technicians or field workers as part of their consolidation.

The IBEW was one of a number of groups that filed comments late Thursday to meet the deadline of the N.C. Utilities Commission. The commission is set to hold public hearings in Raleigh in two weeks on the corporate merger that would create the nation's largest electric utility.

Raleigh-based Progress said it plans to eliminate 700 to 1,000 positions in Raleigh, erasing up to half its downtown workforce as the corporate headquarters is consolidated in Charlotte. Progress and Charlotte-based Duke have said they don't expect the job cuts to affect workers in the field and in power plants.

"The companies' nebulous promise to avoid involuntary layoffs 'to the maximum extent possible' is insufficient," the IBEW wrote in its filing.

North Carolina critics of the proposed merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy are making last-minute filings with the N.C. Utilities Commission to express their displeasure at the planned creation of the nation's largest electric utility. The deadline to file objections was today.

The groups warn that the planned merger would be a bad deal for customers and for the environment. The groups are asking the utilities commission not to approve the merger without imposing additional conditions to promote green energy.

A coalition of groups including the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund say the merger would create a giant power company that will dominate the state and crowd out competition from clean energy producers.

The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, a Raleigh trade group that represents solar and other renewable developers, wants the commission to require the power companies to pay $75 million into a public benefit fund to pay for home weatherization and other programs. The utilities have committed to contributing $15 million, one-fifth that amount.