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.
Sunshine is a northern neighborhood of the city of St. Gabriel in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. Located approximately 15 miles south of Baton Rouge along the Mississippi River, the community was originally named Forlorn Hope by inhabitants but was given its current name by business owners Matilda Hickman and Maurice Broussard in 1944. The community was annexed to St. Gabriel in 1987.