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.
Greene is a city in Butler County, Iowa, along the Shell Rock River, and along Butler County's northern border, where Butler and Floyd counties meet. The population was 1,099 at the 2000 census. Greene is the headquarters of the Iowa Northern Railway. The town was featured in King Corn, a 2007 documentary about corn and its effects on American food and agriculture industries.