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.
Emerson is a village in Dakota, Dixon, and Thurston Counties in the U.S. state of Nebraska. Emerson was named after the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. The population was 856 at the 2000 census. Emerson is the only community in Nebraska that lies in three counties. The Dakota and Dixon county portions of Emerson are part of the Sioux City, IA–NE–SD Metropolitan Statistical Area.