ASSET RETIREMENT OBLIGATIONS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Environmental Remediation Obligations [Abstract]

ASSET RETIREMENT OBLIGATIONS

NOTE 13 - ASSET RETIREMENT OBLIGATIONS

The accrued closure obligation provides for contractual and legal obligations related to our indefinitely idled and closed operations and for the eventual closure of our active operations. The closure date for each of our active mine sites was determined based on the exhaustion date of the remaining mineral reserves, and the amortization of the related asset and accretion of the liability is recognized over the estimated mine lives. The closure date and expected timing of the capital requirements to meet our obligations for our indefinitely idled or closed mines is determined based on the unique circumstances of each property. For indefinitely idled or closed mines, the accretion of the liability is recognized over the anticipated timing of remediation. As the majority of our asset retirement obligations at our steelmaking operations have indeterminate settlement dates, asset retirement obligations have been recorded at present values using estimated ranges of the economic lives of the underlying assets.

We performed a detailed assessment of our asset retirement obligations related to our active operations most recently in 2020 in accordance with our accounting policy, which requires us to perform an in-depth evaluation of the liability every three years in addition to routine annual assessments. In 2020, we employed third-party specialists to assist in the evaluation.

The following is a summary of our asset retirement obligations:

	December 31,
(In millions)	2022		2021
Asset retirement obligations1	$	520	$	449
Less: current portion	21		35
Long-term asset retirement obligations	$	499	$	414
1 Includes $277 million and $293 million related to our active operations as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

The following is a roll-forward of our asset retirement obligation liability:

(In millions)	2022		2021
Asset retirement obligation as of January 1	$	449	$	342
Increase from acquisitions	—		116
Reclassification from environmental obligations	63		—
Accretion expense	26		18
Remediation payments	(40)		(29)
Revision in estimated cash flows	22		2
Asset retirement obligation as of December 31	$	520	$	449

The increase from revision in estimated cash flows primarily relates to rising electricity costs associated with required water management systems related to closed coal mines in Pennsylvania.