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.
Brooten is a city in Pope and Stearns counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota, United States. The population was 649 at the 2000 census. Almost the entire city lies in Stearns County, with only a small portion in Pope County. The Stearns County portion of Brooten is part of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area.