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.
Carson is an unincorporated community in southwestern Taos County, New Mexico, United States. Named after famed frontiersman and Taos resident Kit Carson, Carson was founded around 1908, when the surrounding area was opened for homesteading. Carson is presently a low-density rural area. Carson has a post office, with the ZIP code 87517. The 87517 ZIP Code Tabulation Area had a population of 158 at the 2000 census. The Carson ZCTA had 114 housing units; a land area land area of 35.03 sq. miles; a water area of 0 sq. miles; and a population density of 4.51 people per sq. mile at Census 2000.