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.
Los Fresnos is a city in Cameron County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,512 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Brownsville–Harlingen Metropolitan Statistical Area Located in south central Cameron County, the City was named for the fresnos scattered in the woods and along streams. In 1912, Lon Hill, an early land owner, formed a company to develop a canal system which would use the Rio Grande to irrigate land for farming. Railroad construction in the early 1900s began to bring settlers to the area, and by 1915 a post office was established. Because of the fertile, irrigated land, farm products increased and with the long growing season in the Rio Grande Valley, farming flourished. Today the city is still surrounded by fertile farm/ranch land. Major crops are cotton, sugarcane, grains, orange, and red grapefruit orchards. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Port Isabel Detention Center is located in Los Fresnos.