Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Reconciliation Between Statutory Federal Income Tax Rate and Effective Income Tax

Our income tax benefit was $500.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to $30.5 million in 2018 and $251.0 million in 2017. Reconciliation between the statutory federal income tax rate and our effective income tax rate is as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2018			2017
Federal statutory tax rate	21.0	%		21.0	%		35.0	%
Federal rate change	—			—			(406.7	)
State	3.8			(0.3	)		(0.7	)
State rate and law change	1.8			0.9			(1.3	)
Non-deductible executive compensation	—			—			0.7
Valuation allowances	(3.8	)		(0.4	)		36.8
Equity compensation	(0.2	)		(0.1	)		30.2
Goodwill impairment	—			(19.4	)		—
Other	—			—			0.3
Consolidated effective tax rate	22.6	%		1.7	%		(305.7	%)

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

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

		2019								2018										2017
		Current	Deferred			Total			Current		Deferred			Total				Current					Deferred			Total
U.S. federal	$	—	$	(434,585	)	$	(434,585	)	$	—	$	(25,322	)		$	(25,322	)		$		—	$		(302,507	)	$	(302,507	)
U.S. state and local		6,147		(71,853	)		(65,706	)		—		(5,167	)			(5,167	)				17			51,464			51,481
Total	$	6,147	$	(506,438	)	$	(500,291	)	$	—	$	(30,489	)		$	(30,489	)		$		17	$		(251,043	)	$	(251,026	)

Significant Components of Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities

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

	December 31,
	2019			2018
	(in thousands)
Deferred tax assets:
Net operating loss carryforward	$	581,324		$	542,847
Deferred compensation		16,815			19,844
Equity compensation		7,188			8,152
AMT credits and other credits		—			3,296
Asset retirement obligation		60,064			78,126
Interest expense carryover		18,035			19,444
Lease deferred tax assets		16,450			—
Other		11,072			11,048
Valuation allowances:
Federal		(32,530	)		(18,975	)
State, net of federal benefit		(158,296	)		(101,372	)
Total deferred tax assets		520,122			562,410
Deferred tax liabilities:
Depreciation and depletion		(639,581	)		(1,207,784	)
Cumulative mark-to-market gain		(25,957	)		(21,294	)
Lease deferred tax liabilities		(14,780	)		—
Total deferred tax liabilities		(680,318	)		(1,229,078	)
Net deferred tax liability	$	(160,196	)	$	(666,668	)

Changes in Deferred Tax Asset Valuation Allowances

The changes in our deferred tax asset valuation allowances are as follows (in thousands):

		2019			2018			2017
Balance at the beginning of the year	$	(120,347	)	$	(125,134	)	$	(107,174	)
Charged to provision for income taxes:
State net operating loss carryforwards		(25,710	)		(23,926	)		(11,612	)
Federal net operating loss carryforwards		13,780			11,716			15,385
Non-recoverable deferred tax assets		(28,208	)		—			—
Other state valuation allowances		(31,214	)		16,380			(23,790	)
Other federal valuation allowances		346			494			(247	)
Other		527			123			2,304
Balance at the end of the year	$	(190,826	)	$	(120,347	)	$	(125,134	)