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.
Marble Hill is a fourth-class city in central Bollinger County in Southeast Missouri in the United States. Located at the intersection of State Highway 34 and State Highway 51, it is the largest city in Bollinger and serves as the county seat . As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 1,502; a 2008 estimate, however, showed the population to be 1,482, a decrease of 1.33%. The city was officially organized in July 1851 and is named after a marble-like rock. Marble Hill is part of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.