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.
Cheyenne is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population was 53,011 at the 2000 census, making it the second smallest city to be the largest city in its state, after Burlington, Vermont. Cheyenne is the northern terminus of the extensive and fast-growing Front Range Urban Corridor.