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.
Pearl is a village in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 187 at the 2000 census. The village, settled in the late 1800s, is named after pearl buttons drilled from the large supply of native mussels that once lived in the nearby Illinois River.