Benefit Plans (Policies)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Benefits Policy [Abstract]

Pension And Other Postretirement Plans

We sponsor a qualified pension plan and two unfunded nonqualified pension plans. Substantially all of our employees are covered by the qualified plan or both the qualified and a nonqualified pension plan. We sponsor OPEB plans to provide medical and life insurance benefits for retired employees.

We recognize the funded status associated with our defined benefit pension and OPEB plans in the balance sheets.Disclosures about the plans are required by the “Compensation – Retirement Benefits” accounting guidance. We recognize an asset for a plan's overfunded status or a liability for a plan's underfunded status, and recognize, as a component of other comprehensive income, the changes in the funded status of the plan that arise during the year that are not recognized as a component of net periodic benefit cost. We record a regulatory asset instead of other comprehensive income for qualifying benefit costs of our regulated operations that for ratemaking purposes are deferred for future recovery. The cumulative funded status adjustment is equal to the remaining unrecognized deferrals for unamortized actuarial losses or gains, prior service costs and transition obligations, such that remaining deferred costs result in an AOCI equity reduction or regulatory asset and deferred gains result in an AOCI equity addition or regulatory liability.