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.
Alice is a city in and the county seat of Jim Wells County, Texas, United States, in the South Texas region of the state. The population was 19,010 at the 2000 census. Alice was established in 1888. First it was called Bandana, then Kleberg and finally Alice after Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg, the daughter of Richard King, who established the King Ranch.