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.
New Florence is a city in Montgomery County, Missouri, United States. The population was 764 at the 2000 census. It includes a branch of Stone Hill Winery, based in Hermann, Missouri. From here to the St. Louis suburbs is the geographic area known as the Missouri Rhineland, first established as a center of vineyards by German immigrants in the mid-19th century.