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.
Merrill is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The population was 897 at the 2000 census. Merrill is an agricultural area and home to an annual Potato Festival. The area was also part of the Klamath Basin water crisis pitting agricultural interests against endangered species water requirements, tribal interests, and environmentalists. Merrill was the birthplace and boyhood home of Carl Barks, the Disney comics artist who created Scrooge McDuck, among others. It is home to the Raiders of Lost River Jr. /Sr. High School.