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.
Hinckley is a town in Millard County, Utah, United States, in the middle of the Sevier Desert. Irrigation water from the Sevier River, passing nearby, has been used to turn Hinckley into a farming oasis. The mountains that are common in Utah, are seen only in the distance, and beyond the reach of the river, a severe desert prevails. The population was 698 at the 2000 census.