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.
Quitman is a city in Clarke County, Mississippi, USA, along the Chickasawhay River. The population was 2,463 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Clarke County. This is the hometown of San Antonio Spurs power forward Antonio McDyess. CNN News anchor Anderson Cooper traces his ancestry to Quitman, since his father, the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper was born here before moving to New Orleans, Louisiana.