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.
Damascus is a town in Faulkner and Van Buren counties in the central part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its portion within Faulkner County is part of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of Damascus was 306 at the 2000 census. On May 2, 2008, an EF3 tornado passing just north of the town caused extensive damage to the area, killing 0.98% of the population.