After a rocky near-decade that has included bankruptcy proceedings and a failed sale to an Australian company, the board of directors of NorthWestern Energy both surprised and heartened Montanans last week by choosing Bob Rowe to lead the company into the future.

The hiring of Rowe, a deeply respected Montana Public Service Commission member between 1993 and 2005, is a serious signal that NorthWest Energy is committed to Montana's energy welfare.

That's not to say that Rowe's tenure as the company's CEO will amount to something like a state utility regulator in disguise. Of course not. But clearly his understanding of Montana's needs and the PSC's point of view will be of great value to this state as well as to his new employers.

Current PSC Chairman Greg Jergeson said last week that that he has had a sense that Sioux Falls, S.D., and Butte (NorthWestern's headquarters and its main Montana office, respectively) "were not in sync." He said Rowe's hiring may be "to get the whole group on the same page, and with a Montana-centric type of focus."

Indeed, Rowe told an IR State Bureau reporter Friday when he confirmed that the board really wants to build a utility that will invest in the state for the long term and make Montana stronger, "that was an offer I couldn't refuse."

His goal, he said, is to foster a utility that "will do it better, more creatively, more responsibly, and (provide) real value to the communities in the state that we serve."

Given the near-universal respect that Rowe commands in Montana, such comments are nothing but good news for the state.