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.
Dubois is a city in Clark County, Idaho, United States. The population was 647 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Clark County. The city was named for U.S. Senator Fred Dubois. Six miles (10 km) north of town is the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station, the county's second largest employer. The station studies sheep breeds to support U.S. sheep farmers. Dubois is near the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, which calls one of its administrative units the Dubois ranger district.