REGULATORY ASSETS AND LIABILITIES

The majority of PGE’s regulatory assets and liabilities are reflected in customer prices and are amortized over the period in which they are reflected in customer prices. Items not currently reflected in prices are pending before the regulatory body as discussed below.

Regulatory assets and liabilities consist of the following (dollars in millions):



	Weighted Average Remaining Life ⁽¹⁾	As of December 31,
		2017					2016
		Current			Noncurrent		Current			Noncurrent
Regulatory assets:
Price risk management ⁽²⁾	6 years	$	53		$	151	$	26		$	120
Pension and other postretirement plans ⁽²⁾	⁽³⁾	—			218		—			235
Deferred income taxes ⁽⁶⁾	⁽⁴⁾	—			—		—			86
Debt issuance costs ⁽²⁾	6 years	—			19		—			22
Other ⁽⁵⁾	Various	9			50		10			35
Total regulatory assets		$	62		$	438	$	36		$	498
Regulatory liabilities:
Asset retirement removal costs ⁽⁶⁾	⁽⁴⁾	$	—		$	933	$	—		$	887
Deferred income taxes ⁽⁶⁾	⁽⁴⁾	—			277		—			—
Trojan decommissioning activities	5 years	3			—		18			—
Asset retirement obligations ⁽⁶⁾	⁽⁴⁾	—			52		—			49
Other	Various	28			26		33			22
Total regulatory liabilities		$	31	⁽⁷⁾	$	1,288	$	51	⁽⁷⁾	$	958


(1)	As of December 31, 2017.


(2)	Does not include a return on investment.


(3)	Recovery expected over the average service life of employees.


(4)	Recovery or refund expected over the estimated lives of the net balance.


(5)	Of the total other unamortized regulatory asset balances, a return is recorded on $51 million and $44 million as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.


(6)	Included in rate base for ratemaking purposes.


(7)	Included in Accrued expenses and other current liabilities on the consolidated balance sheets.

As of December 31, 2017, PGE had regulatory assets of $51 million earning a return on investment at the following rates: i) $14 million earning a return by inclusion in rate base; ii) $25 million at the approved rate for deferred accounts under amortization, ranging from 1.47% to 2.38%, depending on the year of approval; iii) $10 million at PGE’s 2017 cost of capital of 7.51%, and iv) $2 million at a rate of the 5-year Treasury rate plus 100 basis points, which currently equates to 2.87%.

Price risk management represents the difference between the net unrealized losses recognized on derivative instruments related to price risk management activities and their realization and subsequent recovery in customer prices. For further information regarding assets and liabilities from price risk management activities, see Note 5, Price Risk Management.

Pension and other postretirement plans represents unrecognized components of the benefit plans’ funded status, which are recoverable in customer prices when recognized in net periodic benefit cost. For further information, see Note 10, Employee Benefits.

Deferred income taxes represents income tax benefits primarily from property-related timing differences that previously flowed to customers and will be included in customer prices when the temporary differences reverse. In 2017, the net regulatory liability was increased by $357 million as the Company deferred the impact of re-measuring accumulated deferred income taxes pursuant to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the TCJA) on December 22, 2017. PGE has proposed to defer and refund the net benefits of the change in tax law under a deferral application filed with the OPUC on December 29, 2017. Substantially all of the amounts deferred under the proposed deferral application are subject to tax normalization rules that require that the impact to the results of operations of amortizing the excess deferred income tax balance cannot occur more rapidly than would have occurred before the change in tax law. The Company plans to use the average rate assumption method to account for the refund to customers. For further information, see Note 11, Income Taxes.

Debt issuance costs represents unrecognized debt issuance costs related to debt instruments retired prior to the stipulated maturity date.

Asset retirement removal costs represents the costs that do not qualify as AROs and are a component of depreciation expense allowed in customer prices. Such costs are recorded as a regulatory liability as they are collected in prices, and are reduced by actual removal costs incurred.

Trojan decommissioning activities represents proceeds received for the settlement of a legal matter concerning the reimbursement from the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) of certain monitoring costs incurred related to spent nuclear fuel at Trojan, as well as ongoing costs and collections associated with decommissioning activities.

Asset retirement obligations represents the difference in the timing of recognition of: i) the amounts recognized for depreciation expense of the asset retirement costs and accretion of the ARO; and ii) the amount recovered in customer prices.