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.
Sierra Blanca is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Hudspeth County, Texas, United States. The population was 533 at the 2000 census. The town, founded in 1881 at the completion point of a long-sought southern transcontinental railway, was named for nearby Sierra Blanca Mountain, which was named for the white poppies which grew on it (sierra blanca is Spanish for white mountain).