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.
Climax is a village in Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 791 at the 2000 census. The village is located within Climax Township on the northern boundary with Charleston Township, and is roughly 15 miles west of Battle Creek and 10 miles east of Kalamazoo. Climax shares a school district with the neighboring town of Scotts. Almost everything in Climax is located on the main cross streets, Main and Maple. The school, cemetery and Harvester restaurant all lie along South Main St. North Main boasts the relatively new music studio (housed in what used to be an independent hardware store), a convenience store, the village library, park, phone company and post office, the bank, Peace Community Church, a few homes, and the town newspaper: the Climax Crescent . Maple is almost entirely residential, with the exception of the United Methodist Church and Sinclair's Market.