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.
La Marque (formerly Lamarque) is a city in Galveston County, Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown Metropolitan Area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 13,682. Located northwest of Galveston near oil fields. It is the hometown of Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Robin Armstrong, an African American physician who serves as vice chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.