Recent Accounting Pronouncements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Recent Accounting Pronouncements [Abstract]

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

18.  Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Accounting Standards Updates

None of the Accounting Standards Updates (ASU) that we adopted and that became effective January 1, 2011 had a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

ASU No. 2011-04

On May 12, 2011, the FASB issued ASU No. 2011-04, "Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Amendments to Achieve Common Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure Requirements in U.S. GAAP and IFRSs."  This ASU amends U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP) and results in a consistent definition of fair value and common requirements for measurement of and disclosure about fair value between U.S. GAAP and international financial reporting standards (IFRS).  The amendments in this ASU change the wording used to describe many of the requirements in U.S. GAAP for measuring fair value and for disclosing information about fair value measurements; however, the amendment's requirements do not extend the use of fair value accounting, and for many of the requirements, the FASB did not intend for the amendments to result in a change in the application of the requirements in the "Fair Value Measurement" Topic of the Codification.  Additionally, ASU No. 2011-04 includes some enhanced disclosure requirements, including an expansion of the information required for Level 3 fair value measurements.  For us, ASU No. 2011-04 was effective January 1, 2012, and the adoption of this ASU did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

ASU Nos. 2011-05 and 2011-12

On June 16, 2011, the FASB issued ASU No. 2011-05, "Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Presentation of Comprehensive Income."  This ASU eliminates the current option to report other comprehensive income and its components in the statement of changes in equity (statement of partners' capital for us).  An entity can elect to present items of net income and other comprehensive income in one continuous statement or in two separate, but consecutive, statements.

ASU No. 2011-05 also requires reclassifications of items out of accumulated other comprehensive income to net income to be measured and presented by income statement line item in both the statement where net income is presented and the statement where other comprehensive income is presented.  However, on December 23, 2011, the FASB issued ASU No. 2011-12, "Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Deferral of the Effective Date for Amendments to the Presentation of Reclassifications of Items Out of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income in Accounting Standards Update No. 2011-05" to defer this new requirement.  For us, both ASU No. 2011-05 and ASU No. 2011-12 were effective January 1, 2012.  Since these ASUs pertain to presentation and disclosure requirements only, the adoption of these ASUs did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

ASU No. 2011-08

On September 15, 2011, the FASB issued ASU No. 2011-8, "Intangibles-Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Testing Goodwill for Impairment."  This ASU allows an entity to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is necessary to perform the two-step quantitative goodwill impairment test prescribed by current accounting principles.  However, the quantitative impairment test is required if an entity believes, as a result of its qualitative assessment, that it is more-likely-than-not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount.  An entity can choose to perform the qualitative assessment on none, some or all of its reporting units.  Moreover, an entity can bypass the qualitative assessment for any reporting unit in any period and proceed directly to the quantitative goodwill impairment

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test, and then resume performing the qualitative assessment in any subsequent period.  For us, ASU No. 2011-8 was effective January 1, 2012, and the adoption of this ASU did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.  Furthermore, we perform our annual goodwill impairment test on May 31 each year, and we do not expect the adoption of this ASU to have a material impact on our May 31, 2012 goodwill impairment test.

ASU No. 2011-09

On September 21, 2011, the FASB issued ASU No. 2011-9, "Compensation-Retirement Benefits-Multiemployer Plans (Subtopic 715-80): Disclosures about an Employer's Participation in a Multiemployer Plan."  The amendments in this ASU require that employers provide, on an annual basis, additional separate disclosures for all individually significant multiemployer pension plans and multiemployer other postretirement benefit plans.  The revisions do not change the current recognition and measurement guidance for an employer's participation in a multiemployer plan.  For us, ASU No. 2011-9 was effective December 31, 2011; however, because we consider our overall multi-employer pension plan liability exposure and multi-employer pension plan contributions to be minimal in relation to the value of our total consolidated assets and net income (and not material to our consolidated financial statements), the adoption of this ASU did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

ASU No. 2011-11

On December 16, 2011, the FASB issued ASU No. 2011-11, "Balance Sheet (Topic 210): Disclosures about Offsetting Assets and Liabilities."  This ASU requires disclosures to provide information to help reconcile differences in the offsetting requirements under U.S. GAAP and IFRS.  The disclosure requirements of this ASU mandate that entities disclose both gross and net information about financial instruments and transactions eligible for offset in the statement of financial position as well as instruments and transactions subject to an enforceable master netting arrangement or similar agreement.  ASU No. 2011-11 also requires disclosure of collateral received and posted in connection with master netting arrangements or similar arrangements.  The scope of this ASU includes derivative contracts, repurchase agreements, and securities borrowing and lending arrangements.  Entities are required to apply the amendments of ASU No. 2011-11 for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2013, and interim periods within those annual periods.  All disclosures provided by those amendments are required to be provided retrospectively for all comparative periods presented.  We are currently reviewing the effect of ASU No. 2011-11.