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.
Fisk is a town in Butler County in Southeast Missouri in the United States. It is located right along the Butler-Stoddard County line on U.S. Highway 60 along the St. Francis River. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the population was 363; a 2008 estimate, however, showed the population to be 368, an increase of 1.38%. Fisk is included within the Poplar Bluff Micropolitan Statistical Area.