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.
Snoqualmie is a city next to Snoqualmie Falls in King County, Washington. The city is home to the Northwest Railway Museum. The population was 1,631 at the 2000 census. Movie actress Ella Raines was born in Snoqualmie Falls, a mill town across the Snoqualmie River that is now part of Snoqualmie, on 6 August 1920. Many of the exterior shots for David Lynch's Twin Peaks television series and movie (') were filmed in Snoqualmie and in the neighboring towns of North Bend and Fall City.