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.
Plush is an unincorporated rural community in the Warner Valley of Lake County, Oregon, United States. The one notable attraction in the area is a hot spring located on the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. Hart Mountain hosts many protected big game animals including the pronghorn antelope and big horn sheep. Plush is home to a large Oregon sunstone gemfield. Sunstone is the Oregon state gemstone. The sunstone found in Plush is different from other sunstones found elsewhere in the world because of the copper content found in the mineral.