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.
West Columbia is a city in Brazoria County in the U.S. state of Texas within the greater Houston metropolitan area. The population was 4,255 at the 2000 census. The first Congress of the Republic of Texas was convened in West Columbia on October 1836 (it was then named simply Columbia).