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 is a city in Smith County, Kansas, United States, in the north central part of the state. The population was 303 at the 2000 census. In 1898, a scientific survey established that the geographic center of the contiguous (Lower 48) United States lies near the town and a monument was subsequently erected at the site.