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Subsequent Events
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2020
Subsequent Events [Abstract]  
Subsequent Events SUBSEQUENT EVENT
In February 2021, a prolonged period of historic cold temperatures across the central United States, which covered all of our Utilities’ service territories, caused a significant increase in heating and energy demand and contributed to unforeseeable and unprecedented market prices for natural gas and electricity.

Our Utilities have regulatory mechanisms to recover the increased energy costs from this record-breaking cold weather event. However, given the extraordinary impact of these higher costs to our customers, we expect our regulators to undertake a heightened review. We are engaged with our regulators to identify appropriate recovery periods over which to recover costs associated with this event as we continue to address the impacts to our customers’ bills.

As a result of this historic event, our natural gas purchases increased by approximately $600 million compared to forecasted base load for the month of February. This amount is a preliminary estimate through February 24, 2021, and does not include certain pipeline transportation charges that remain subject to settlement and payable in late March 2021. To fund February natural gas purchases and pipeline transportation charges and provide additional liquidity, we entered into a nine-month Credit Agreement on February 24, 2021, that provides for an $800 million unsecured term loan facility. The term loan, which matures on November 23, 2021, has an interest rate based on LIBOR plus 75 basis points, carries no prepayment penalty and is subject to the same covenant requirements as our Revolving Credit Facility. We expect to repay a portion of this term loan prior to maturity and refinance the remaining portion in longer-term debt. In the event we are unable to refinance the remaining obligation under the $800 million term loan, we believe it is probable that our current plans to manage liquidity would be sufficient to meet our obligations.

Except as described above and the Note 2 disclosures surrounding Colorado Gas’ and Nebraska Gas’ jurisdictional consolidation and rate reviews, there have been no events subsequent to December 31, 2020 which would require recognition in the consolidated financial statements or disclosures.