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.
Ashland is a city in Boone County, Missouri, United States. (The term SoBoCo is sometimes used to refer to Southern Boone County. ) Ashland is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,869 at the 2000 census. The population in 2006 was about 3,000, according to the city's website.