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.
Friendswood is a city in Galveston and Harris Counties in the U.S. state of Texas, within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown Metropolitan Area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 29,037. In 2007, CNN/Money Magazine rated Friendswood as one of "America's Best Places to Live."