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.
Owyhee is a census-designated place (CDP) in Elko County, Nevada, United States. The population was 1,017 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area. Owyhee is also located within the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, and since the reservation is also located in southwestern Idaho, the Nevada portion of the reservation is in the Mountain Time Zone. Owyhee and Mountain City (located 12 miles southeast of Owyhee, and 2 miles southeast of the reservation), are not exempt from state legislation which places them officially in the Pacific Time Zone, but they observe Mountain Time anyway.