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.
New Sweden is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 621 at the 2000 census. The town made national news headlines in 2003 when a man poisoned the coffee urn at the local Lutheran church, sickening 15 elderly parishioners and killing one.