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.
Artois (formerly, Germantown) is an unincorporated community in Glenn County, California. It is located 5 miles (8 km) north of Willows, at an elevation of 167 feet (51 m), in the northern Sacramento Valley of California. It is located on the former US Highway 99W, and is bypassed to the west by Interstate Highway 5. It is served by the California Northern Railroad, formerly the west Sacramento Valley line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Its coordinates are approximately 39°37' N 122°12' W. The ZIP code for Artois is 95913, and its population (ZIP code area, 2000 census) is 209. The community is inside area code 530. The name stems from the ancient province in France where the method of boring artesian wells was first adopted. Artois was formerly named Germantown, and petitions to change the Germantown post office name were successful with Artois adopted on May 21, 1918. Local belief is that a World War I troop train stopped to water at Gemantown and a riot insued when the troops took offense at the name. The town was then renamed after the battles of Artois. The Germantown post office opened in 1877, and changed its name to 1918.