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.
White Pine is an unincorporated community in Ontonagon County the U.S. state of Michigan. White Pine is located at 46°45′14″N 89°35′03″W / 46.75389°N 89.58417°W / 46.75389; -89.58417 in Carp Lake Township between Bergland, Michigan and Silver City, Michigan, and east of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. The Copper Range Company operated a copper mine in White Pine. It was a station on the Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Paul Railway. Thomas H. Wilcox, a mining engineer found mass copper in the Mineral River and formed the White Pine Copper Company to mine it. The settlement was given a post office as "White Pine Mine" in June 1915. The White Pine ZIP code 49971 is a P.O. Box only office serving two noncontiguous areas in Carp Lake Township.