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.
Fairfield is a town in Teton County, Montana, United States. The population was 659 at the 2000 census. Fairfield is the self-proclaimed "Malting Barley Capital of the World" with 83,000 acres of irrigated cropland and 56,000 acres (227 km) of non-irrigated cropland in production for the purpose of raising malt barley in the vicinity.