ACCOUNTING AND DISCLOSURE CHANGES

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

ACCOUNTING AND DISCLOSURE CHANGES

ACCOUNTING AND DISCLOSURE CHANGES

NOTE 2ACCOUNTING AND DISCLOSURE CHANGES

Recently Issued Accounting and Disclosure Changes

In January 2017, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued new rules that changed the definition of a business to assist entities with evaluating when a set of transferred assets and activities is a business. The rules are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted.  We do not expect the adoption of these rules to have a significant impact on our financial statements.

In March 2017, the FASB issued rules requiring employers that sponsor defined benefit plans for pensions and postretirement benefits to present the service cost component of net periodic benefit cost in the same income statement line item as other employee compensation costs arising from services rendered during the period.  Only the service cost component will be eligible for capitalization in assets.  Employers will present the other components of the net periodic benefit cost separately from the line item that includes the service cost and outside of any subtotal of operating income.  The rules are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted.  We do not expect the adoption of these rules to have a significant impact on our financial statements.

Recently Adopted Accounting and Disclosure Changes

In July 2015, the FASB issued rules requiring entities to measure inventory at the lower of cost or net realizable value. We adopted these rules in the first quarter of 2017 with no changes to our financial statements.