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.
Cottonwood is a city in Idaho County, Idaho, United States. The population was 944 at the 2000 census. Cottonwood is just west of U.S. Route 95, between Grangeville and Lewiston. The Cottonwood Butte ski area is west of the city, on the east face of the mountain of the same name. Also west of the city is St. Gertrude's Convent, begun in the early 1900s. The order of Benedictine nuns traces their history to twelfth century Switzerland. The chapel at St. Gertrude's is among the most ornate in the state.