HELENA — Accolades are flowing in for Montana Public Service Commission Chairman Bob Rowe, who concludes his 12-year career as a state utility regulator on Monday. Rowe, a Missoula lawyer and Democrat who represented western and northwestern Montana on the PSC, earned a national reputation, particularly for his work on telecommunications issues.

Rowe was president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in 1999-2000 and headed its Telecommunications Committee from 1997 to 1999.

Barred by term limits from seeking re-election, Rowe has formed a transcontinental telecommunications consulting firm with Baltimore-based Mike Balhoff, who had been head of telecommunications investor research at an investment bank for 16 years. Rowe will remain in Helena and hopes to combine his consulting with the occasional teaching stint at national training seminars for utility regulators and their staff.

“I knew when I was elected I was going to love this job,” Rowe said. “I had as good a sense as anyone what was going to be involved. I didn’t fully appreciate how challenging and how exciting it would be and the opportunities to get things done.”

U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., a leading national lawmaker on telecom issues, praised Rowe, saying: “He was probably as good a PUC (public utility commission) guy as we’ve had for a long time. I’ve never seen a guy get as immersed in issues as Bob Rowe did. He’s a very capable guy with a good heart.”

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said: “I’ve never met anybody working in our state who had so much the consumers’ best interests at heart, both in energy and especially telecommunications. He is so respected nationally. He was both brilliant and savvy fundamentally because he knew the subject so well, and he was fighting for consumers.”

The two senators unsuccessfully pitched for Rowe to be appointed to the Federal Communications Commission.

Baucus said Rowe’s departure is a prime example of how term limits “deprive us of well-qualified people.”

Pat Callbeck Harper, associate state director of AARP Montana, called Rowe “a terrific friend of consumers.”

Fellow Commissioner Tom Schneider, D-Helena, praised Rowe, saying: “Bob has been directly involved in Montana’s turbulent period of deregulation and bankruptcy and has worked extremely hard to salvage the best out of the messes.”

Commissioner Greg Jergeson, D-Chinook, who is expected to succeed Rowe as chairman next week, said, “He’s particularly well suited for contending with the enormously complex issues that the PSC faces on a nearly day-to-day basis.”

Rowe got his start as a Legal Services attorney in Missoula who was a strong advocate for low-income households in PSC hearings, said Jim Morton, director of District XI Human Resource Development Council. Said Morton: “It was a natural fit. Bob working as an advocate for low-income families. In Montana, the low-income families are the working families.”

Reflecting on his PSC career, Rowe said recently, “Flat out, what I will remember the most is the great people I got to work with, particularly the staff here, other state commissioners and the people I got to meet in the small towns of Montana.”

Rowe served on the PSC during some of the most tumultuous times in Montana history, following the 1997 Legislature’s passage of the electric utility deregulation law. Montana Power Co. later sold its dams and coal-fired power plants to PPL Montana and tried to morph into its telecommunications subsidiary, which went bankrupt. Montana Power sold off the rest of the company to different companies, with NorthWestern Corp. buying its natural gas and electricity transmission and distribution business in Montana. NorthWestern also went bankrupt but emerged from it this fall.

As NorthWestern foundered and before it filed for bankruptcy, the PSC under Rowe’s leadership began preparing. He worked with Gov. Judy Martz, Attorney General Mike McGrath and others to make sure the state played an active role in the bankruptcy proceedings. The state hired an out-of-state law firm and financial consulting firm, the costs of which ultimately were reimbursed by NorthWestern.

Ironically, when the situation was at its worst, with NorthWestern in bankrupty, the PSC and others negotiated with the utility to lay the foundation for what Rowe believes will be better service and public policies in the future.

Rowe said the PSC unsuccessfully pushed for legislation for utilities to keep their utility assets separated or ring-fenced from the rest of their businesses. NorthWestern failed not because of its utility’s finances but because of financial troubles with its other holdings.

“I hope what we’ve learned is don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, be modest about your infallibility and about launching off in any direction unless you’ve really done your homework and try to hedge your bets,” Rowe said.

On the telecommunications side, Rowe said it was exciting to be at the PSC as technology was really catching fire with the Internet, broadband service and the passage of the 1996 federal Telecommunications Act.