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.
Point Marion is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,333 at the 2000 census. It is served by the Albert Gallatin Area School District. Point Marion is located at the confluence of the Monongahela and Cheat Rivers. Approximately three miles north of Point Marion is Friendship Hill National Historic Site, home of early American politician Albert Gallatin. Point Marion was settled in the mid-1700s and named in 1842 for its geographic location and Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox", a South Carolinian who never saw the town. Houze Glass Co. , located in the borough, was the primary employer. The company was founded by Leon Houze, a Belgian immigrant, in 1902 as a glassware manufacturer, but later branched into silkscreen printing and decorating. The company closed in 2004 and the plant later auctioned off.