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Income Taxes:
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes Income Taxes
Winter Storm Uri

As discussed in Note 2 above, our Utilities submitted cost recovery applications which seek to recover incremental costs from Winter Storm Uri through a regulatory mechanism. We expect to recover these costs from customers over several years. Winter Storm Uri costs, which will be deductible in our 2021 tax return, created a net deferred tax liability of approximately $130 million. The deferred tax liability will reverse with the same timing as the costs are recovered from our customers.

The income tax deduction recognized from Winter Storm Uri will create a NOL in our 2021 federal and state income tax returns. Our federal NOL carryforwards no longer expire due to the TCJA; however, our state NOL carryforwards expire at various dates from 2021 to 2041. We do not anticipate material changes to our valuation allowance against the state NOL carryforwards from Winter Storm Uri. Therefore, we did not record an additional valuation allowance against the state NOL carryforwards as of September 30, 2021.

Income Tax (Expense) and Effective Tax Rates

Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 Compared to the Three Months Ended September 30, 2020

Income tax (expense) and the effective tax rate were comparable to the same period in the prior year.

Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 Compared to the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2020

Income tax (expense) for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 was $(6.3) million compared to $(25) million reported for the same period in 2020. For the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the effective tax rate was 3.5% compared to 13.6% for the same period in 2020. The lower effective tax rate is primarily due to $10 million of increased tax benefits from Colorado Electric and Nebraska Gas TCJA-related bill credits to customers (which is offset by reduced revenue), $3.2 million of increased tax benefits from federal production tax credits associated with new wind assets, $2.2 million of increased tax benefits from amortization of excess deferred income taxes, $1.9 million of tax benefits from various statutory rate changes and $1.1 million of increased flow-through tax benefits related to repairs and certain indirect costs. These current year tax benefits were partially offset by a prior year tax benefit from the reversal of accrued excess deferred income taxes as part of resolving the last of the Company’s open dockets seeking approval of its TCJA plans.