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.
Crane is a city in and the county seat of Crane County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,191 at the 2000 census. An oil boomtown dating from the 1920s, it is still in the center of a prominent oil-producing region. Crane is the only significant town in sparsely-populated Crane County, and also contains the county's only post office.