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.
Grand Portage is an unorganized territory in Cook County, Minnesota, on Lake Superior, at the northeast corner of the state near the border with northwestern Ontario. The population was 557 at the 2000 census. The town of Grand Portage lies within the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. The adjacent Grand Portage National Monument celebrates traditional Ojibwe lifeways and the history of the Canadian North West Company fur trading post, Fort Charlotte, that was located there. Grand Portage is the home of the dock for the Wenonah and Voyageur II passenger boats. They convey tourists and campers to Isle Royale National Park.