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.
Beeville is a city in Bee County, Texas, United States. The population was 13,129 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Bee County. It is the home of a community college, Coastal Bend College. Many of the stately homes, commercial buildings, and schools in and around Beeville, including the Bee County Courthouse, were designed by the architect William Charles Stephenson, who came to Beeville in 1908 from Buffalo, New York.