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.
Palo Cedro (pop. 4,000) is 8 miles (13 km) east of Redding, California. The towns of Bella Vista (pop. 1,218), Millville (pop. 610), Shingletown (pop. 2,222), Oak Run (pop. 760), Whitmore (pop. 593), and Round Mountain (pop. 122) lie within a fifteen-mile (24 km) radius. Most of the kids that go to school in the area go to Foothill High School, its a good little school with an API score of 817, making it one of the best public schools in northern California. Palo Cedro is a census-designated place (CDP) in Shasta County, California, United States. The population was 1,247 at the 2000 census.