News and Press Releases for March 2006

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03/16/2006

Gov. Sanford Welcomes Duke Energy Announcement

Duke Selects SC As Number One Site for Future Plant, Could Mean 800 Jobs, $4-6 Billion Investment

Columbia, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford today issued the following statement on Duke Energy's announcement that the company has selected Cherokee County, South Carolina as its preferred site for building a new power facility in the Upstate, with the potential for up to 1,000 jobs during construction of the $4-6 billion project, and up to 800 high-paying jobs upon completion:

"In the competition for global investment, this announcement could potentially be an enormous win for South Carolina in terms of not only direct jobs, but our power generating capacity for further job-creating efforts going forward," Gov. Sanford said. "It's also incredibly important in terms of continuing to find alternative forms of energy to not only reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources, but also from an air-quality standpoint. The bottom line is that for all these reasons, this endeavor has the potential to pay some real dividends to South Carolina."

South Carolina's unemployment rate recently dropped to 6.2 percent - the lowest point since October 2002 and lower than when Gov. Sanford took office in January 2003. From January of 2003 through January of 2006, South Carolina outpaced two-thirds of the nation in percentage of job growth with over 112,000 jobs created during that time period.