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.
Rockport is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 7,767 at the 2000 census. Rockport is located approximately 25 miles northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula. It is directly east of Gloucester, Massachusetts and surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Rockport. The 1957-1958 adventure/drama television series, Harbourmaster, starring Barry Sullivan, is set in Rockport.