With the wind

Charlotte-based Duke Energy has selected AWS Truepower LLC to collaborate with Duke and others in a federally-funded study to evaluate wind-power generation of electricity off the Carolinas’ coasts. Potential energy output will be measured by simulating offshore wind farms put together by AWS Truepower. Working with AWS will be ABB Inc., the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and UNC-Chapel Hill.

June wedding

Duke Energy and Progress Energy have shared that their $26 billion merger can be expected to come to a close in May or even as late as June. The final combined company is reducing the total workforce by about 1,900 through buyouts and layoffs.

Can it happen here?

N.C. Governor Bev Perdue said recently she will seek a sales-tax increase, three-fourths of one cent, to fund education in her N.C. state budget she proposes later this year. The sales tax in most counties would rise from 6.75 percent to 7.5 percent.

It probably happens here

According to the Augusta Chronicle, 80 contract workers at the Southern Co. nuclear reactor construction site near Waynesboro in eastern Georgia failed drug screenings in 2011 and were told not to come back. During 2011 almost 4,000 contractors and vendors were evaluated for access to the construction site. Testing positive for drugs includes traces of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and amphetamines.

Gasoline taxes

According to the American Petroleum Institute, S.C. drivers pay 35.2 cents in federal, state and local taxes per gallon of gasoline. In that 35.2 cents, the state’s portion is 16.8 cents per gallon, last raised in 1989. The state’s portion is not likely to be raised during the current legislative session and especially during the lingering impact of the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Home sales in the cities

The three largest metro areas in South Carolina (Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston) posted gains in home sales for December 2011 when compared to December 2010. Statewide there were 3,595 home sales last month, a drop of 1.6 percent from December 2010. In year-to-year comparisons, home sales in Charleston were up 5.5 percent. In Columbia, sales dropped 10.9 percent. In Greenville, home sales for the year were down 2.5 percent.

Unemployment

South Carolina’s unemployment rate for December, according to the Department of Employment and Workforce, dropped by 0.4 percentage point from November’s 9.9 percent to 9.5 percent. In Georgia, the state’s unemployment rate dropped for the third month in a row to 9.7 percent in December, down from 9.8 percent in November.

Population

The Columbia metro area had an estimated population of 791,614 on January 15, 2012. In Charleston, it was 688,307; Greenville, 652,076. The Charlotte metro area has grown to about 1.84 million; Raleigh, 1.2 million. On February 6, Houston will hit 6.2 million. The Brooking’s Global MetroMonitor report, a ranking of the world’s cities, put Houston at #19 in the world and #1 in the USA for growth as an economic engine. On Wednesday, January 25 at 5:55 p.m., the estimated population of the New York City metro area hit 19 million.

BB&T

Winston-Salem-based BB&T recently posted its fourth-quarter net income of $391 million, which is a gain of 88 percent over last year’s fourth quarter earnings of $208 million. For all of 2011, BB&T had a net income of $1.3 billion, a gain over 2010 when the bank earned $816 million, successfully emerging from the credit cycle, as bankers put it. Columbia’s Mike Brenan, chairman of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, is president of BB&T South Carolina.

Not exactly what Edens wants to hear

Traditional holiday retail sales over November and December grew about four percent over the previous year, while online sales increased an impressive 15 percent. As internet shopping increases, enclosed mall tenants and streetfront brick and mortar stores are being transformed, albeit slowly. The retail winners are the stores integrating with online sales, encouraging the customers to return the goods to traditional stores where they tend to buy something else. Apple stores have developed the both/and technique, where the showrooms support online sales and the reverse is also true.