Regulatory Accounting.
We are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Regulated Operations (Topic 980), provides that rate-regulated public utilities account for and report regulatory assets and liabilities consistent with the economic effect of the way in which regulators establish rates if the rates established are designed to recover the costs of providing the regulated service and if the competitive environment makes it probable that such rates can be charged and collected. Accounting for businesses that are regulated and apply the provisions of Topic 980 can differ from the accounting requirements for non-regulated businesses. Transactions that are recorded differently as a result of regulatory accounting requirements include the capitalization of an equity return component on regulated capital projects, capitalization of other project costs, retirements of general plant assets, employee related benefits, environmental costs, negative salvage, asset retirement obligations, and other costs and taxes included in, or expected to be included in, future rates. As a rate-regulated entity, our management has determined that it is appropriate to apply the accounting prescribed by Topic 980 and, accordingly, the accompanying consolidated financial statements include the effects of the types of transactions described above that result from regulatory accounting requirements.
