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.
The village of Steger (35 miles south of Chicago) lies along the dividing line on the south end of Cook County and north end of Will County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 9,682 at the 2000 census, and estimated to be 10,409 as of 2005.