Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Disclosure Pension And Other Postretirement Benefits [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Text Block

8.       Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Costs

The following tables provide the components of net periodic benefit cost for our company-sponsored qualified and non-qualified defined benefit pension plans and other postretirement benefit plans:

		Three Months Ended March 31,
							Other Postretirement
			Pension Benefits				Benefits
Thousands			2012		2011		2012		2011
Service cost		$	2,130	$	1,899	$	177	$	168
Interest cost			4,304		4,527		314		344
Expected return on plan assets			(4,638)		(4,456)		-		-
Amortization of net actuarial loss			3,843		2,692		103		68
Amortization of prior service costs			49		88		49		49
Amortization of transition obligations			-		-		103		103
	Net periodic benefit cost		5,688		4,750		746		732
Amount allocated to construction			(1,418)		(1,235)		(214)		(226)
Amount deferred to regulatory balancing account(1)			(2,068)		(1,330)		-		-
	Net amount charged to expense	$	2,202	$	2,185	$	532	$	506
(1) Effective January 1, 2011, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) approved the deferral of certain pension expenses above or below the amount set in rates, with recovery of these deferred amounts through the implementation of a balancing account, which includes the expectation of lower pension expenses in future years. Deferred pension expense balances include accrued interest at the utility’s authorized rate of return.

Multiemployer and Defined Contribution Plans

In addition to the company-sponsored defined benefit pension plans referred to above, we contribute to a multiemployer pension plan (EIN 94-6076144) for our utility's bargaining unit employees, known as the Western States Office and Professional Employees Pension Fund (Western States Plan),and to defined contribution plans for utility and non-utility employees. The costs of these plans are in addition to pension expense in the table above. Our contributions to the Western States Plan amounted to $0.1 million, and our contributions to the defined contribution plans amounted to $0.7 million and $0.8 million, for the three months endedMarch 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively.  Under the terms of our current collective bargaining agreement, we can withdraw from the Western States Plan at any time. However, if we withdraw and the plan is underfunded, we could be assessed a withdrawal liability. Currently, we have made no decisions to withdraw from the plan.Accordingly, we have not currently recognized these potential withdrawal liabilities on the balance sheet pursuant to accounting rules for multiemployer plans. See Note 9, in the 2011 Form 10-K for more information about these plans.

Employer Contributions to Company-Sponsored Defined Benefit Pension Plans

In the three months ended March 31, 2012,we made cash contributionstotaling $13.8 million to our qualified defined benefit pension plans. We also expect to make additional contributions of approximately $14 million to these qualified plansover the last nine months of 2012,plus we expect to makeongoing benefit payments under our unfunded, non-qualified pension plans and other postretirement benefit plans.