Note 3. Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2012

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 3.   Income Taxes

Major components of our income tax provision (benefit) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2012 and 2011 are as follows (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended June 30,					Six Months Ended June 30,
	2012			2011		2012		2011
Current:
Federal	$	(144	)	$	4,111	$	3,528	$	4,111
State		2			478		553		478
Foreign		115			115		230		230
Total current income tax provision (benefit)		(27	)		4,704		4,311		4,819
Deferred:
Federal and state deferred income tax provision		720			14,938		3,697		38,319
Total income tax provision	$	693		$	19,642	$	8,008	$	43,138

Our ability to utilize our deferred tax assets depends on future taxable income generated from operations. For the six months ended June 30, 2012, there were no circumstances that caused us to change our assessment of the ability to generate future taxable income to realize our deferred tax assets.  After utilization of $3.7 million during the first six months of 2012, the net deferred tax asset at June 30, 2012 was $112.1 million. It is possible that the valuation allowance on our deferred tax asset will change in the future as a result of the analysis of our long-range forecasts, with a resulting tax provision or benefit.

The current income tax provisions for the six months ended June 30, 2012 and 2011 vary from the amounts that would have resulted from applying the statutory income tax rate to pre-tax income primarily due to the effects of percentage depletion for all periods presented and the change in valuation allowance related to foreign operations during the six months ended June 30, 2012.