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.
Duryea is a borough in the Greater Pittston area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, nine miles (14 km) south of Scranton on the Lackawanna River. Duryea was incorporated as a borough in 1891. Coal mining and the manufacture of silk were the chief industries in the early years of its existence. The population numbered 7,487 in 1910, and 8,275 in 1940. The population was 4,634 at the 2000 census.