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.
Troutdale is a city in Multnomah County, Oregon, north of Gresham and east of Wood Village. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 13,777. Troutdale was incorporated on October 2, 1907. It was named after the country home of Captain John Harlow, a former sea captain from Maine, and a successful Portland businessman. According to an article in the Oregonian in 1959, he named his home Troutdale because it had a "small dale near his house where it had a fish pond which he stocked with trout. " The city serves as the eastern gateway to the Historic Columbia River Highway, the Mount Hood Scenic Byway, and the Columbia River Gorge.