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.
Lisbon is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The population was 4,047 at the 2000 census. Reportedly the town is named after the capital of Portugal. Yet, the 1810 US Census for the town shows the town's name as Lisburn, a city located in Northern Ireland adjacent to Belfast. Belfast was the birthplace of Alexander Macomb the prosperous merchant of Loyalist sympathies and purchaser of much of Northern New York along the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario earlier in 1791. The Town of Lisbon is in the northern part of the county and is northwest of Canton.