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.
Marion is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Marion County. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio, approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Columbus. The population was 35,318 at the 2000 census. According to the US Census 2008 estimate, Marion has a population of 35,841, while Ohio's Columbus–Marion–Chillicothe Combined Statistical Area has 2,002,604 people. Marion is the county's largest city and the center of the Marion Micropolitan Statistical Area (as defined by the United States Census Bureau in 2003). It is nicknamed the City of Kings. President Warren G. Harding was a native of Marion.