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.
Texarkana is the largest city and the county seat of Miller County, Arkansas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Texas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 30,006, ranking it as the state's 13th largest city, behind West Memphis. The city, along with its Texas counterpart forms the core of the Texarkana, Texas–Texarkana, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area, encompassing all of Bowie County, Texas and Miller County, Arkansas.