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.
Oil Springs (also Medina) is an unincorporated community in Johnson County, Kentucky, United States. It lies along Route 40 west of the city of Paintsville, the county seat of Johnson County. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 41238. Oil Springs was named for the first natural oil springs discovered in Johnson County. The first post office was established on January 29, 1868, with Hamilton Litteral as postmaster. It was also known as Medina for a short time after the Medina Seminary, which was a boarding school that was established there in the 1870's by John Riggs Long.