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.
Oakhurst (formerly, Fresno Flats) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Madera County, California, 14 miles (23 km) south of the entrance to Yosemite National Park, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Oakhurst is located on the Fresno River 3 miles (4.8 km) south-southwest of Yosemite Forks, at an elevation of 2274 feet (693 m). It is part of the Madera–Chowchilla Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population, according to the green sign at the bottom of Deadwood, is around 13,000.