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.
Lansing is a city situated along the Missouri River in the eastern part of Leavenworth County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. The population was 9,199 at the 2000 census, and it was estimated to be 10,705 in the year 2006. It is the second most populous city of Leavenworth County and is a part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Lansing Correctional Facility, which includes the state's main maximum-security prison, is located in Lansing. Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock, the subjects of In Cold Blood, were hanged at the prison on April 14, 1965. Most recently, Lansing was ranked 88 in the top 100 of Money Magazine's 2007 list of best places to live.