Two seats on Montana’s Public Service Commission are up for election this fall. An incumbent is running unopposed for one of the seats, and two candidates are competing for another seat on what is currently an all-Republican board.
The PSC is a governmental body that sets rates and regulates electric utilities in the state.
For around $110,000 a year, Montana Public Service commissioners take on a four-year commitment to balance company interests with the needs of the customers the utilities serve. With no challenger on the ballot, Republican incumbent Randy Pinnoci is poised to hold onto the district 1 seat representing northeast and north central Montana.
Before joining the PSC, Pinocci served one term in the Montana House and was a member of the Montana Shooting Sports Association board of directors. According to his biography on the PSC website, he has a business background in printing political direct mail. Pinocci did not respond to YPR’s requests for an interview.
During his first term, he’s been vocal at PSC meetings about his concern regarding NorthWestern’s gap in self-owned resources, which it fills through various means including buying energy on the wholesale market.
“I’m encouraging the ratepayer to encourage NorthWestern to grow the amount of energy that they produce through a greater share of Colstrip, through putting in a hydroelectric dam, putting generators in dams that don’t have them,” Pinocci said at a September meeting of the PSC.
In August, he co-signed a letter with another commissioner that made claims that the “probable lack of energy” would lead to “rolling blackouts” in eastern Montana this summer. The letter points to the threat of energy shortages as one reason for lawmakers to rally behind the Colstrip coal-fired power plant. While possible, neither of Montana’s largest utilities have indicated that brownouts and blackouts are probable.
Pinocci recently made headlines for suggesting at a PSC meeting that Missoula customers be exposed to loss of electricity if the state were to experience brownouts.
“Maybe Missoula’s the one to turn off,” he said. “I think in the event that happens in 20 below, they’re gonna have a very different attitude.”
The PSC itself has been in the news in recent years for disagreements among commissioners, workplace bullying and a poor financial audit that flagged evidence of mismanaged finances. The PSC released a strategic plan to address the results, and it’s a talking point this year for candidates.
Democratic candidate John Repke points to the audit as a priority he’d work on if he won the district 5 seat.
“That’s a difficult environment to maintain and develop staff, so one of the things I want to accomplish is make the agency a place where top notch people want to work, so Montanans can truly be represented,” said Repke.
Commissioner Brad Johnson is terming out of the District 5 seat, and leaves behind the only competitive seat on a commission that has been all-Republican for about a decade. Repke faces Republican Ann Bukacek in the race for district 5, which represents Lewis and Clark, Flathead, Lake and Teton counties.
As a commissioner, Repke tells YPR he would strive to evaluate rate changes and other items using an objective, fact-based approach.
Repke has a background in finance. He worked for more than a decade in waste management and was a financial administrator at a large supply chain company.
“It should be pointed out that this job is primarily about balancing the economics of the regulated utilities with those of the customers, so that is the experience that matters.”)
Repke says he believes the country is on the cusp of a change in how power is generated and used, and Montana is at the forefront.
“The cost of alternative energy sources is going down as the efficiency in those technologies are drastically increasing, so we’re going to see change driven mostly by technology,” he said.
Repke’s competitor, Kalispell physician Anne Bukacek didn’t respond to YPR’s requests for an interview for this story, but in a campaign video advocates for coal and hydroelectric power, which she calls the ultimate green source of energy: “Fortunately, Montana has abundant natural resources for producing power enough to match the needs of consumers, even as our population in Montana increases in size.”
Bukacek beat state Representative Derek Skees in the June primary by a near-zero margin.
According to her website, she’s been endorsed by Montanans for Limited Government and the Republican Central Committees in the district 5 counties. Like Pinocci, Bukacek is politically conservative, and also served on the Montana Shooting Sports Association board. She was a member of the Flathead Health Board from 2020 to 2022, during which - her website says - she “was instrumental in the battle against lockdown in the Flathead.”
If elected, Bukacek would join an all-GOP regulatory board. A Democrat hasn’t been voted onto the Public Service commission in more than a decade.
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