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.
Hambleton is a town in Tucker County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 246 at the 2000 census. Hambleton was established in 1889, but not incorporated until 1905. It was named by then United States Senator Stephen B. Elkins in honor of a stockholder by this name in the West Virginia Central Railroad Company. The town was previously known as Hulings.