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.
Plaquemine is a city in and the parish seat of Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 7,064 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area. Plaquemine is the birthplace of radio talk show host Moon Griffon, who broadcasts statewide from Monroe. Griffon is sometimes know as the "Cajun Rush Limbaugh". The town is also home to former Democratic Lieutenant Governor Robert "Bobby" Freeman. Former State Representative Mary Smith Gleason (1899-1967) of Webster Parish in north Louisiana spent her last years in Plaquemine.