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.
Burnet is a city in and the county seat of Burnet County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,735 at the 2000 census. Both the city and the county were named for David Gouverneur Burnet, the first (provisional) president of the Republic of Texas. He also served as Vice President during the administration of Mirabeau B. Lamar. The name is pronounced as "BURN-it" rather than "bur-NET" because that is the way David Burnet pronounced his name. In fact, there is an expression known pretty much throughout the hill country of Texas that goes "It's Burnet, durn it, can't you learn it?", where "Burnet", "durn it", and "learn it" all rhyme.