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.
Bruning is a village in Thayer County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 300 at the 2000 census. During World War II the U.S. Army Air Forces operated Bruning Army Airfield nearby. In October 1960, inventor and aviator Ed Yost used Bruning as the starting point for the first free flight of a modern, propane-fueled hot air balloon.