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.
Alvord is a town in Wise County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,007 at the 2000 census. Texas Railroad Commissioner Ernest O. Thompson, who also served as a mayor of Amarillo and became an expert on petroleum issues, was born in Alvord in 1892.