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.
Pawhuska is a city in and the county seat of Osage County, Oklahoma, United States, and the capital of the Osage Nation. The population was 3,629 at the 2000 census, and the ZIP Code for the city is 74056. It was named for the 19th century Osage chief, Pawhuska.