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.
Mitchell is a city in Lawrence County, Indiana, United States. The population was 4,567 at the 2000 census. It is the birthplace of astronaut Gus Grissom, Purdue University Mechanical Engineering graduate, who flew on Liberty Bell 7, Gemini 3, and who died in a launch pad fire at Kennedy Space Center in 1967.