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.
La Verkin is a city in Washington County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,392 at the 2000 census. La Verkin and Hurricane, Utah are so close together that you can easily walk between the two in a few minutes Theories about the origin of the city's name suggest that it may be a corruption of the Spanish la virgen, after the nearby Virgin River, or possibly an error in the transcription of the term "beaver skin. " The city made national headlines in 2001 when the City Council passed an ordinance declaring La Verkin a "United Nations-free zone".