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.
Elkhorn was a city in Douglas County, Nebraska, United States and is a present-day neighborhood on the western edge of Omaha. The population was 6,062 at the 2000 census and was estimated by the Census Bureau at 8,192 in 2005. The area was named after the river of Elkhorn or Elk's Horn, of the Omaha tribe.