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.
Riverside is a city in Walker County, Texas, United States. The population was 425 at the 2000 census. Two famous natives of Riverside are singer-actress Jennifer Holliday (born 1960), best known for her creation of the role of Effie in the successful Tony-award winning Broadway musical "Dreamgirls. " Eugene C. Barker, premier historian of Texas, was born in Riverside in 1874. He was affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin from 1895, when he arrived as a student, until his death as professor emeritus in 1956.