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.
Eden is a city in Concho County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,561 at the 2000 census. Approximately one-half of the population consists of inmates housed at the Eden Detention Center, a for-profit prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.