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.
Brookwood is a town in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the town is 1,483. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is also one of the last incorporated towns in this hemisphere to have a public office of the Ku Klux Klan in operation.