Progress bolsters house with Mel Martinez

Progress Energy, that not long ago suffered a severe regulatory better in Florida, has combined a distinguished lobbyist and former lawmaker from the Sunshine State to the board.

The Raleigh-based electric application voiced this sunrise that former U.S. Sen. Melquiades "Mel" Martinez has been inaugurated as the 14th part of the board. Martinez, who was the initial Cuban-American to offer in the U.S. Senate, is right away a lobbyist with the general law organisation DLA Piper.

�Sen. Martinez brings poignant experience with financial, appetite and bureaucratic affairs issues,� pronounced Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson, in a rebuilt statement. �His further creates the vital and different house of directors even stronger and will give us an additional sensitive point of perspective as we work to residence becoming different appetite realities and the critical decisions and investments confronting the company.�

Martinez, 63, will consequence at slightest $157,500 in money and batch for his house work, Progress disclosed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a part of the companys Nuclear Oversight Committee, he"ll additionally embrace a $1,500 price for each assembly attends.

Martinez, a Republican, was cabinet member of Housing and Urban Development in the Bush administration, and served in the Senate from 2005 to 2009.

In January, Florida regulators deserted Progress" ask to lift rates by about $500 million. Progress serves about 3.1 million business in Florida and the Carolinas and has been strike tough by the retrogression and housing unemployment in Florida.