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.
Blauvelt is a hamlet, formerly known as Greenbush and then Blauveltville, in the Town of Orangetown Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Tappan; east of Nauraushaun and Pearl River; south of Central Nyack and west of Orangeburg. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a population of 5,207.