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.
Lettsworth is a small village located in the extreme northern tip of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, in the United States. It lies on the east bank of the Atchafalaya River near its intersection with the Mississippi River and the Red River at the Old River Control Structure. As of 2005, the population is 202. The town's zip code is 70753. Blues musician Buddy Guy was born in Lettsworth in 1936. The father of journalist Howard K. Smith was originally from Lettsworth. On the northern end of Lettsworth, bordering the Atchafalaya River, is White Hall Plantation House, an 1840s antebellum structure designed by architect Henry Howard, and once the home of Louisiana State Senator Bennet Barton Simmes, founder of the river town of Simmesport on the opposite bank of the river.