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.
Parma is a village in Jackson County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 907 at the 2000 census. This was an increase from 875, the population in 1990, and this marks the first time the village of Parma had more than 900 people. Parma is the birthplace of world-renowned ecologist and soil scientist Dr. Robert E. Horton and NASCAR driver Brian Tyler.