Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Reconciliation Between Statutory Federal Income Tax Rate and Effective Income Tax

Our income tax benefit was $338.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 compared to income tax expense of $396.5 million in 2014 and income tax expense of $33.9 million in 2013. Reconciliation between the statutory federal income tax rate and our effective income tax rate is as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2015		2014			2013
Federal statutory tax rate	35.0	%		35.0	%		35.0	%
State	4.3			3.1			(2.3	)
State apportionment rate change	(0.2	)		(0.2	)		(14.9	)
Non-deductible executive compensation	(0.1	)		0.2			0.7
Valuation allowances	(6.8	)		0.2			3.5
Other	¾			0.2			0.6
Consolidated effective tax rate	32.2	%		38.5	%		22.6	%

Income Tax (Benefit) Expense Attributable to Income Before Income Taxes

Income tax (benefit) expense attributable to income before income taxes consists of the following (in thousands):

		2015								2014						2013
		Current	Deferred			Total			Current		Deferred		Total		Current			Deferred			Total
U.S. federal	$	¾	$	(328,257	)	$	(328,257	)	$	¾	$	361,152	$	361,152	$	¾		$	58,527		$	58,527
U.S. state and local		29		(10,449	)		(10,420	)		1		35,350		35,351		(143	)		(24,527	)		(24,670	)
Total	$	29	$	(338,706	)	$	(338,677	)	$	1	$	396,502	$	396,503	$	(143	)	$	34,000		$	33,857

Significant Components of Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities

Significant components of deferred tax assets and liabilities are as follows:

	December 31,
	2015			2014
	(in thousands)
Deferred tax assets:
Net operating loss carryforward	$	173,503		$	176,812
Deferred compensation		45,413			73,942
Equity compensation		25,940			25,833
AMT credits and other credits		4,437			4,447
Asset retirement obligation		101,142			109,808
Cumulative mark-to-market loss		¾			649
Other		10,163			10,908
Valuation allowances:
Federal		(42,500	)		¾
State, net of federal benefit		(41,516	)		(8,800	)
Deferred compensation plans and other		(3,607	)		(7,799	)
Total deferred tax assets		272,975			385,800
Deferred tax liabilities:
Depreciation, depletion and investments		(940,482	)		(1,342,038	)
Cumulative mark-to-market gain		(109,845	)		(154,183	)
Other		(595	)		(2,660	)
Total deferred tax liabilities		(1,050,922	)		(1,498,881	)
Net deferred tax liability	$	(777,947	)	$	(1,113,081	)