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.
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States located about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.5 km² (4.8 mi²). 12.2 km² (4.7 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (2.28%) is water. Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay, fed by Pickleweed Inlet and Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio which traverse through Mill Valley. Beyond the flat coastal area and marshlands, it occupies narrow wooded canyons, mostly of second-growth redwoods, on the eastern slopes of Mount Tamalpais.