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.
San Bernardino is a large city located in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is the county seat of the eponymous county. San Bernardino's estimated population, as of 2006, is 205,010. As of 2006, it was the 18th largest city in California, and the 101st largest city in the United States. San Bernardino is part of the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, which is the 14th largest in the nation. Though much of the housing stock is, on average, older than that of the surrounding region, new homes continue to be built in different parts of the city, with the bulk rising in the Verdemont area on the north side of the city.