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.
Beckwourth is a census-designated place (CDP) in Plumas County, California, United States. The population was 342 at the 2000 census. According to the USGS National Geographic Names Database, a variant spelling was Beckwith and its name comes from an early explorer who had changed his name from Beckwith to Beckwourth: Named for James P. Beckwourth (d.1867), adventurer, trapper, and trail blazer who discovered Beckwourth Pass in 1851. Beckwourth built the first house in the Sierra Valley where he operated an inn and trading post. During the 1850's, Beckwourth Pass was the portal of an immigrant route into California through Lassen, Plumas, Butte and Yuba counties known as the Beckwourth Trail.