Income Tax

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Disclosure Income Tax [Abstract]

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

9. Income Tax

The effective income tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 varied from the combined federal and state statutory tax rates principally due to the following:

	September 30,
	2012		2011
Federal statutory tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%
Increase (decrease):
Current state income tax, net of federal tax benefit	4.7	%	4.5	%
Amortization of investment and energy tax credits	(0.3	)%	(0.4	)%
Differences required to be flowed-through by regulatory commissions	1.4	%	1.5	%
Gains on company and trust-owned life insurance	(1.2	)%	(0.9	)%
One-time state tax adjustment, net of federal benefit	4.7	%	—	%
Other - net	0.7	%	0.7	%
Effective income tax rate	45.0	%	40.4	%

The increase in the effective income tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2012 compared to the same period in 2011 was primarily due to a one-time, after-tax charge of $2.7 million in the third quarter of 2012 related to the OPUC's rate case order that the Company cannot recover deferred amounts resulting from the 2009 Oregon tax rate change. See Note 14 in this filing for more information on the one-time, tax charge and Note 10 in our 2011 Form 10-K for more detail on income taxes and effective tax rates.