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.
Newton is a town in Dale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census its population was 1,708. Once the county seat of Dale County, Newton lost this distinction to nearby Ozark in 1870, and is now a small farming community. The city currently forms a part of the Enterprise-Ozark micropolitan statistical area.