Audit reports some progress at troubled state utility board

A newly-released legislative audit of the Montana Public Service Commission revealed lingering management challenges at the state’s utility regulation agency, which has in recent years attracted significant controversy. The agency, which is charged with balancing the interests of monopoly utilities with their captive customers, found itself in lawmakers’ crosshairs in 2021 after auditors unearthed loose spending suggestive of a “waste of state resources” and falsified records that led them to “doubt the integrity and competence of certain members of management and the commission.” In re