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.
Lebanon (commonly pronounced "Leba-nen") is the county seat of Boone County, Indiana, United States. The population was 14,222 at the 2000 census. The city was named Lebanon because a stand of hickory trees on the site reminded one of the town's commissioners of the Biblical cedars of Lebanon. The city is the county seat of Boone County. Lebanon is located in central Indiana, northwest of Indianapolis.