Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Schedule of Income before Income Tax, Domestic and Foreign

The components of income before income taxes from continuing operations for each of the years ended December 31 were as follows:


	2023		2022		2021
	(In thousands)
United States	$	539,898	$	300,529	$	286,066
Foreign	—		—		—
Income before income taxes from continuing operations	$	539,898	$	300,529	$	286,066

Schedule of Components of Income Tax Expense (Benefit)

Income tax expense (benefit) from continuing operations for the years ended December 31 was as follows:


	2023		2022		2021
	(In thousands)
Current:
Federal	$	50,180	$	21,337	$	11,737
State	13,707		7,176		4,414
Foreign	—		—		—
	63,887		28,513		16,151
Deferred:
Income taxes:
Federal	(5,960)		16,105		19,092
State	(601)		4,245		6,546
Investment tax credit - net	2,147		898		1,755
	(4,414)		21,248		27,393
Total income tax expense	$	59,473	$	49,761	$	43,544

Schedule of Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities

Components of deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities at December 31 were as follows:


	2023		2022
	(In thousands)
Deferred tax assets:
Postretirement	$	28,953	$	30,228
Environmental compliance	28,873		—
Compensation-related	27,363		19,867
Operating lease liabilities	14,242		13,914
Customer advances	8,312		7,615
Legal and environmental contingencies	4,881		8,265
Other	29,753		24,024
Total deferred tax assets	142,377		103,913
Deferred tax liabilities:
Basis differences on property, plant and equipment	421,212		405,428
Postretirement	39,110		47,340
Purchased gas adjustment	34,618		33,567
Environmental compliance	16,221		—
Operating lease right-of-use-assets	14,116		13,667
Intangible assets	12,756		12,032
Other	62,076		46,593
Total deferred tax liabilities	600,109		558,627
Valuation allowance	816		785
Net deferred income tax liability	$	458,548	$	455,499

Schedule of Change in Net Deferred Income Tax Liability Reconciliation

The following table reconciles the change in the net deferred income tax liability from December 31, 2022, to December 31, 2023, to deferred income tax expense:


	2023
(In thousands)
Change in net deferred income tax liability from the preceding table	$	3,049
Excess deferred income tax amortization	(8,383)
Deferred taxes associated with other comprehensive loss	(46)
Other	966
Deferred income tax expense for the period	$	(4,414)

Schedule of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation

Total income tax expense differs from the amount computed by applying the statutory federal income tax rate to income before taxes. The reasons for this difference were as follows:


Years ended December 31,	2023			2022			2021
	Amount		%	Amount		%	Amount		%
	(Dollars in thousands)
Computed tax at federal statutory rate	$	113,379	21.0	$	63,111	21.0	$	60,074	21.0
Increases (reductions) resulting from:
State income taxes, net of federal income tax	11,677		2.2	9,268		3.1	9,971		3.5
Tax-free debt for equity exchange	(38,967)		(7.2)	—		—	—		—
Federal renewable energy credit	(15,175)		(2.8)	(15,343)		(5.1)	(13,914)		(4.9)
Excess deferred income tax amortization	(8,383)		(1.6)	(9,008)		(3.0)	(10,295)		(3.6)
Other	(3,058)		(.6)	1,733		.6	(2,292)		(.8)
Total income tax expense	$	59,473	11.0	$	49,761	16.6	$	43,544	15.2