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.
Appleton is a city in Swift County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,871 at the 2000 census. The town is home to a medium-security prison, the Prairie Correctional Facility, which is wholly owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. Elmer A. Benson, who served as a United States Senator and as Governor of Minnesota, was born in Appleton on 23 Sept. 1895. Notably, Appleton is also home to many retirees and military veterans. Appleton has named all of its twenty-some streets, except Minnesota Street, for local veterans who died in combat.