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.
Booneville is a city in Owsley County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 111 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Owsley County. It is located at the junction of Kentucky Route 11 and Kentucky Route 30 on the South Fork of the Kentucky River. The town was named for Daniel Boone. The town, consisting at the time of little more than a temporary log courthouse, became the county seat when Owsley County was formed on May 20, 1844. During the civil war, Booneville was a crossroads for various Union and Confederate regiments, and was threatened by Confederate guerrillas, but avoided the destruction that befell some other county seats of Kentucky during the war.