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.
Quemado is an unincorporated community in Catron County, New Mexico, United States. Walter De Maria's 1977 art installation, The Lightning Field, is between Quemado and Pie Town, New Mexico. Jerry D. Thompson, historian of the American Southwest, was reared in Quemado.