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.
Wareham (Typically pronounced Wear-ham. ) is a town located in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 20,335, with an estimated 2008 population of 21,221. For geographic and demographic information about specific parts of the town of Wareham, please see the articles about Onset, Wareham Center, West Wareham, and Weweantic.