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.
Cantonment, Florida (pronounced Can-TONE-ment) is a suburb approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown Pensacola, Florida. Most of the people who live in Cantonment commute to either Pensacola or the Pace, Florida and Milton, Florida areas for employment. The two largest employers are International Paper and Solutia. Schools include J. M. Tate High School, Ransom Middle School, Jim Allen Elementary School, and Pine Meadow Elementary School. The oldest cemetery is Old Muscogee Cemetery on River Annex Road. In September 2006, the Pensacola News Journal newspaper announced a predicted explosion of growth in Cantonment due to a planned 4,000+ acre housing development. The Pensacola News Journal quoted officials as saying the infrastructure of this new massive development will be like "adding another city" to Pensacola. Cantonment is in Escambia County, in the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1814 Andrew Jackson camped his troops in what is now the Cantonment area, thus leading to the name of the area. The latitude of Cantonment is 30.608N. The longitude is -87.34W. The word cantonment means a temporary or semi-permanent military quarters. It is in the Central Standard time zone. Elevation is 148 feet (45 m).