Regulated Operations
Our interstate natural gas pipeline and storage operations are subject to the jurisdiction of the FERC and follow the FASB’s accounting standards for regulated operations. Under these standards, we record regulatory assets and liabilities that would not be recorded for non-regulated entities. Regulatory assets and liabilities represent probable future revenues or expenses associated with certain charges or credits that are expected to be recovered from or refunded to customers through the rate making process. Items to which we apply regulatory accounting requirements include certain postretirement benefit plan costs, losses on reacquired debt, taxes related to an equity return component on regulated capital projects in periods prior to 2007 when we changed our legal structure to a non-taxable entity, and certain costs related to gas not used in operations and other costs included in, or expected to be included in, future rates.
