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.
Gooding is the county seat and largest city of Gooding County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 3,384 at the 2000 census. The city is named for Frank R. Gooding, a local sheep rancher who became a prominent political figure in Idaho in the early 20th Century, serving as both Governor of Idaho and a United States Senator. The original name of Gooding was Toponis. Gooding is home to the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind. The world's largest factory for barrel cheese, the raw product for processed cheese, is located in Gooding. It has a capacity of 120,000 metric tons per year of barrel cheese and belongs to the Glanbia group .