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.
Edmonds is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Edmonds has a view of Puget Sound and both the Olympic Mountains and Cascade Range. The population was 39,515 at the 2000 census; according to 2006 estimates, Edmonds was the second most populous city in Snohomish County, ranking only behind Everett. Based on per capita income, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Edmonds ranks 37th of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked. Edmonds is a port in the Washington State Ferries system. Currently, the only ferry from Edmonds is a run to Kingston, Washington; in the past, there have been much longer routes from Edmonds to Port Townsend, Washington.