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.
Wamsutter is a town in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 261 at the 2000 census. The original inhabitants of the area were the Shoshone and Ute tribes. Westerners did not really settle in the county until the coming of the railroad in the 1860s. Originally, the town was known as Washakie. Confusion with nearby Fort Washakie prompted an 1884 name change to Wamsutter, after a Union Pacific bridge engineer. The town, which bills itself as "The Gateway to the Red Desert" is located along Interstate 80 between Rawlins and Rock Springs, on the easternmost border of Sweetwater County. The natural gas industry has had a lot of influence on Wamsutter in recent years. Both in employment opportunities in the area, and by contributing to the community directly. Wamsutter is the largest settlement, and the only incorporated town in the Great Divide Basin.