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.
Circle (also called Circle City) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 100. Circle is 260 km (162 miles) northeast of Fairbanks at the end of the Steese Highway. Circle was named by miners in the late 1800s who believed that the town was on the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Circle is actually about 80 km (50 miles) north of Circle. Circle is also the unofficial northern terminus of the Pan-American Highway. Every February, Circle City hosts a checkpoint for the long-distance Yukon Quest sled dog race.