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Regulatory assets and liabilities | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2020
Regulatory Assets and Liabilities Disclosure [Abstract] |
Regulatory assets and liabilities | Regulatory Assets and Liabilities The following table summarizes the individual components of unamortized regulatory assets and liabilities as of December 31:
| Estimated Recovery or Refund Period | * | 2020 |  | 2019 |
|  |  | (In thousands)
Regulatory assets: |  |  |  |
Current: |  |  |  |
Natural gas costs recoverable through rate adjustments | Up to 1 year |  | $ | 42,481 |  | $ | 42,823 |
Cost recovery mechanisms | Up to 1 year |  | 10,645 |  | 6,288 |
Conservation programs | Up to 1 year |  | 7,117 |  | 6,963 |
Other | Up to 1 year |  | 8,284 |  | 7,539 |
|  |  | 68,527 |  | 63,613 |
Noncurrent: |  |  |  |
Pension and postretirement benefits | ** |  | 155,942 |  | 157,069 |
Plant costs/asset retirement obligations | Over plant lives |  | 71,740 |  | 66,000 |
Plant to be retired | - |  | 65,919 |  | 32,931 |
Manufactured gas plant sites remediation | - |  | 26,429 |  | 15,126 |
Natural gas costs recoverable through rate adjustments | Up to 2 years |  | 21,539 |  | 46,381 |
Cost recovery mechanisms | Up to 10 years |  | 16,245 |  | 13,108 |
Taxes recoverable from customers | Over plant lives |  | 10,785 |  | 11,486 |
Long-term debt refinancing costs | Up to 40 years |  | 4,426 |  | 4,286 |
Other | Up to 18 years |  | 6,356 |  | 7,397 |
|  |  | 379,381 |  | 353,784 |
Total regulatory assets |  |  | $ | 447,908 |  | $ | 417,397 |
Regulatory liabilities: |  |  |  |
Current: |  |  |  |
Natural gas costs refundable through rate adjustments | Up to 1 year |  | $ | 18,565 |  | $ | 23,825 |
Electric fuel and purchased power deferral | Up to 1 year |  | 3,667 |  | 5,824 |
Taxes refundable to customers | Up to 1 year |  | 3,557 |  | 3,472 |
Other | Up to 1 year |  | 5,661 |  | 9,814 |
|  |  | 31,450 |  | 42,935 |
Noncurrent: |  |  |  |
Taxes refundable to customers | Over plant lives |  | 227,850 |  | 246,034 |
Plant removal and decommissioning costs | Over plant lives |  | 167,171 |  | 173,722 |
Pension and postretirement benefits | ** |  | 16,989 |  | 18,065 |
Other | Up to 21 years |  | 16,065 |  | 9,549 |
|  |  | 428,075 |  | 447,370 |
Total regulatory liabilities |  |  | $ | 459,525 |  | $ | 490,305 |
Net regulatory position |  |  | $ | (11,617) |  | $ | (72,908) |
*Estimated recovery or refund period for amounts currently being recovered or refunded in rates to customers. ** Recovered as expense is incurred or cash contributions are made.
As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, approximately $332.5 million and $276.5 million, respectively, of regulatory assets were not earning a rate of return but are expected to be recovered from customers in future rates. These assets are largely comprised of the unfunded portion of pension and postretirement benefits, asset retirement obligations, accelerated depreciation on plant to be retired and the estimated future cost of manufactured gas plant site remediation. In 2019, the Company experienced increased natural gas costs in Washington from the rupture of the Enbridge pipeline in Canada in late 2018. As a result, the Company requested, and the WUTC approved, recovery of the balance of natural gas costs recoverable related to this period of time over three years rather than its normal one-year recovery period. In February 2019, the Company announced that it intends to retire one aging coal-fired electric generating unit in March 2021 and two units in early 2022. The Company has accelerated the depreciation related to these facilities in property, plant and equipment and has recorded the difference between the accelerated depreciation, in accordance with GAAP, and the depreciation approved for rate-making purposes as regulatory assets. The Company expects to recover the regulatory assets related to the plants to be retired in future rates. If, for any reason, the Company's regulated businesses cease to meet the criteria for application of regulatory accounting for all or part of their operations, the regulatory assets and liabilities relating to those portions ceasing to meet such criteria would be removed from the balance sheet and included in the statement of income or accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in the period in which the discontinuance of regulatory accounting occurs.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for detailed information about regulatory assets and liabilities, including current and noncurrent assets created when regulatory agencies permit the deferral of costs to the balance sheet that would otherwise be required to appear on the company's income statement and would be charged against current expenses or revenues, as well as current and noncurrent liabilities created when regulatory agencies permit. + References No definition available. + Details
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