Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Marquette is a city located in the northwest corner of McPherson County, Kansas, United States, between K-4 and the Smoky Hill River. The city was settled by Swedish immigrants and chartered on February 9, 1874. The population was 542 at the 2000 census.