Income Taxes Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Income Taxes [Abstract]

Schedule of Components of Income Tax Expense (Benefit) [Table Text Block]

Income tax expense/(benefit) consists of the following (in millions):

	Years Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
Current:
Federal	$	6	$	9	$	12
State and local	17		12		22
	23		21		34
Deferred:
Federal	(22)		(2)		(15)
State and local	(1)		8		(2)
	(23)		6		(17)
Income tax expense	$	—	$	27	$	17

Schedule of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation [Table Text Block]

The significant differences between the U.S. Federal statutory rate and PGE’s Effective tax rate for financial reporting purposes are as follows:

	Years Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
Federal statutory tax rate	21.0	%	21.0	%	21.0	%
Federal tax credits(1)	(20.5)		(13.4)		(16.7)
State and local taxes, net of federal tax benefit(2)	10.1		6.5		6.5
Flow through depreciation and cost basis differences	(4.9)		1.5		1.5
Amortization of excess deferred income tax(3)	(4.7)		(3.7)		(4.1)
Other	(1.0)		(0.7)		(0.8)
Effective tax rate	—	%	11.2	%	7.4	%

(1)    Federal tax credits consist primarily of production tax credits (PTCs) earned from Company-owned wind-powered generating facilities. The federal PTCs are earned based on a per-kilowatt hour rate, and as a result, the annual amount of PTCs earned will vary based on weather conditions and availability of the facilities. The PTCs are generated for 10 years from the corresponding facilities’ in-service dates. PGE’s PTC generation ended or will end at various dates between 2017 and 2030.

(2) In 2019, Oregon enacted HB 3427, which imposed a new gross receipts tax on companies with annual revenues in excess of $1 million and applies to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2020. The legislation defines that the tax applies to commercial activities sourced in Oregon, less certain deductions. The resulting amount is taxed at 0.57%.

(3) The majority of excess deferred income taxes related to remeasurement under the TCJA is subject to IRS normalization rules and will be amortized over the remaining regulatory life of the assets using the average rate assumption method.

Schedule of Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities [Table Text Block]

Deferred income tax assets and liabilities consist of the following (in millions):

	As of December 31,
	2020		2019
Deferred income tax assets:
Employee benefits	$	136	$	119
Price risk management	29		26
Regulatory liabilities	23		22
Tax credits	77		64
Total deferred income tax assets	265		231
Deferred income tax liabilities:
Depreciation and amortization	504		496
Regulatory assets	128		103
Other	7		10
Total deferred income tax liabilities	639		609
Deferred income tax liability, net	$	374	$	378