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.
Loyalton is a city in Sierra County, California, United States. The population was 862 at the 2000 census. The ZIP code for the community is 96118. Wired telephone numbers in the community follow the format (530) 993-xxxx. The town is near the north extent of State Route 49, which ends at State Route 70 in Vinton, California. According to Rand-McNally, it is a fifty mile drive on State Route 49 to the county seat, Downieville. Many of the population are ranchers, loggers, former loggers, or suburbanites escaping from the growing Reno-Tahoe area.