Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2012

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Schedule Of Income Tax Expense Domestic

Income tax expense is comprised of the following (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2012			2011			2010
Federal
Current	$	5,358		$	(159	)	$	1,529
Deferred	13,197			18,618			23,322
Investment tax credits	(376		)	(424		)	(427		)
State
Current	(1,411		)	(27		)	7
Deferred	1,321			(7,943		)	1,329
	$	18,089		$	10,065		$	25,760

Schedule of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation

The following table reconciles our effective income tax rate to the federal statutory rate:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2012		2011		2010
Federal statutory rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
State income, net of federal provisions	0.9		(5.5	)	1.1
Amortization of investment tax credit	(0.3	)	(0.4	)	(0.4	)
Plant and depreciation of flow through items	(1.1	)	(0.3	)	(1.8	)
Flow through repair deduction	(14.0	)	(13.1	)	(9.4	)
State NOL benefit	(2.1	)	(2.3	)	—
Prior year permanent return to accrual adjustments	(1.6	)	(3.8	)	0.3
Other, net	(1.3	)	0.2		0.2
	15.5	%	9.8	%	25.0	%

Schedule of Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities

The components of the net deferred income tax liability recognized in our Consolidated Balance Sheets are related to the following temporary differences (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2012			2011
Pension / postretirement benefits	$	59,098		$	41,898
NOL carryforward	—			51,941
Property taxes	18,025			—
Unbilled revenue	15,944			6,577
Customer advances	13,660			16,157
Reserves and accruals	12,457			4,378
Compensation accruals	11,303			7,269
AMT credit carryforward	10,588			6,897
Environmental liability	9,701			9,670
Regulatory liability	1,526			1,098
QF obligations	1,462			20,596
Other, net	3,539			2,300
Valuation allowance	—			(3,834		)
Deferred Tax Asset	157,303			164,947
Excess tax depreciation	(278,051		)	(280,025		)
Goodwill amortization	(118,313		)	(96,233		)
Flow through depreciation	(63,551		)	(49,740		)
Regulatory assets	(24,173		)	(14,323		)
Property taxes	—			(510		)
Deferred Tax Liability	(484,088		)	(440,831		)
Deferred Tax Liability, net	$	(326,785	)	$	(275,884	)

Summary of Income Tax Contingencies

The change in unrecognized tax benefits is as follows (in thousands):

	2012			2011			2010
Unrecognized Tax Benefits at January 1	$	131,949		$	120,859		$	122,844
Gross increases - tax positions in prior period	—			—			—
Gross decreases - tax positions in prior period	(1,766		)	(15,774		)	(5,707		)
Gross increases - tax positions in current period	2,391			26,864			6,202
Gross decreases - tax positions in current period	(19,283		)	—			(2,480		)
Unrecognized Tax Benefits at December 31	$	113,291		$	131,949		$	120,859