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.
Town of Tar Heel is a town located in Bladen County, North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 70. Tar Heel is home to the largest pork processing plant in the world which opened in 1992, operated by Smithfield Foods and is located just north of the Town Limits.