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.
Tollhouse (formerly, Toll House) is an unincorporated community in Fresno County, California. It lies at an elevation of 1919 feet (585 m). Tollhouse is located in the Sierra Nevadas, 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Shaver Lake. The town was created in the 1860s around a lumber mill. The name "tollhouse" comes from the fact that the community was also built up in connection to a now-defunct toll road running up the steep slopes of Sarver Peak to Pine Ridge. The ZIP Code is 93667, and the community is inside area code 559. The first post office opened in Tollhouse in 1876, closed in 1884, re-opened in 1885. The last toll on the toll road was collected in 1878. Tollhouse is the tribal headquarters for the Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of California.