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.
Clearwater is a city in Stearns and Wright counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 858 at the 2000 census. Most of the city lies in Wright County, with only a small part of the city's area extending into Stearns County. The Wright County portion of Clearwater is part of the Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the small portion in Stearns County is part of the St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area.