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.
Knott is an unincorporated community in northwestern Howard County, Texas, United States. It lies along FM 846 northwest of the city of Big Spring, the county seat of Howard County. Its elevation is 2,612 feet (796 m). Although Knott is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 79748. Knott, along with its neighbor West Knott, was named for rancher Calvin Stevenson Knott, one of the first settlers in the area. Agriculture is important in the Knott area; although watermelons were once significant in the local economy, cotton farming is now dominant.