As discussed in Note 1, the Maryland PSC and the FERC provide the final determination of the rates we charge our customers for our regulated businesses. Generally, we use the same accounting policies and practices used by nonregulated companies for financial reporting under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. However, sometimes the Maryland PSC or FERC orders an accounting treatment different from that used by nonregulated companies to determine the rates we charge our customers. When this happens, we must defer certain regulated expenses and income in our Consolidated Balance Sheets as regulatory assets and liabilities. We then record them in our Consolidated Statements of Income (Loss) (using amortization) when we include them in the rates we charge our customers.

We summarize regulatory assets and liabilities in the following table, and we discuss each of them separately below.

At December 31,	2011			2010


	(In millions)
Deferred fuel costs
Rate stabilization deferral	$	358.3		$	415.6
Other		61.0			8.8
Electric generation-related regulatory asset		71.4			86.9
Net cost of removal		(218.2	)		(210.5	)
Income taxes recoverable through future rates (net)		71.4			68.3
Deferred BGE Smart Energy Savers Program® costs		123.5			64.3
Deferred Advanced Meter Infrastructure costs		15.4			12.2
Deferred storm costs		12.4			—
Deferred postretirement and postemployment benefit costs		5.2			6.4
Deferred environmental costs		3.1			5.6
Workforce reduction costs		1.1			1.3
Other (net)		(9.0	)		(6.1	)

Total regulatory assets (net)		495.6			452.8
Less: Current portion of regulatory assets (net)		153.7			78.7

Long-term portion of regulatory assets (net)	$	341.9		$	374.1

In June 2006, Senate Bill 1 was enacted in Maryland and imposed a rate stabilization measure that capped rate increases by BGE for residential electric customers at 15% from July 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007. As a result, BGE recorded a regulatory asset on its Consolidated Balance Sheets equal to the difference between the costs to purchase power and the revenues collected from customers, as well as related carrying charges based on short-term interest rates from July 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007. In addition, as required by Senate Bill 1, the Maryland PSC approved a plan that allowed residential electric customers the option to further defer the transition to market rates from June 1, 2007 to January 1, 2008. During 2007, BGE deferred $306.4 million of electricity purchased for resale expenses and certain applicable carrying charges as a regulatory asset related to the rate stabilization plans. During 2011 and 2010, BGE recovered $57.2 million and $61.8 million, respectively, of electricity purchased for resale expenses and carrying charges related to the rate stabilization plan regulatory asset. BGE began amortizing the regulatory asset associated with the deferral which ended in May 2007 to earnings over a period not to exceed ten years when collection from customers began in June 2007. Customers who participated in the deferral from June 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 repaid the deferred charges without interest over a 21-month period which began in April 2008 and ended in December 2009.

As described in Note 1, deferred fuel costs are the difference between our actual costs of purchased energy and our fuel rate revenues collected from customers. We reduce deferred fuel costs as we collect them from our customers.

We exclude other deferred fuel costs from rate base because their existence is relatively short-lived. These costs are recovered in the following year through our fuel rates.

As a result of the deregulation of electric generation, BGE ceased to meet the requirements for accounting for a regulated business for the previous electric generation portion of its business. As a result, BGE wrote-off its entire individual, generation-related regulatory assets and liabilities. BGE established a single, generation-related regulatory asset to be collected through its regulated rates, which is being amortized on a basis that approximates the pre-existing individual regulatory asset amortization schedules.

A portion of this regulatory asset represents income taxes recoverable through future rates that do not earn a regulated rate of return. These amounts were $56.0 million as of December 31, 2011 and $53.3 million as of December 31, 2010. We will continue to amortize this amount through 2017.

As discussed in Note 1, we use the group depreciation method for the regulated business. This method is currently an acceptable method of accounting under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and has been widely used in the energy, transportation, and telecommunication industries.

Historically, under the group depreciation method, the anticipated costs of removing assets upon retirement were provided for over the life of those assets as a component of depreciation expense. However, effective January 1, 2003, the recognition of expected net future costs of removal is shown as a component of depreciation expense or accumulated depreciation.

BGE is required by the Maryland PSC to use the group depreciation method, including cost of removal, under regulatory accounting. For ratemaking purposes, net cost of removal is a component of depreciation expense and the related accumulated depreciation balance is included as a net reduction to BGE's rate base investment. For financial reporting purposes, BGE continues to accrue for the future cost of removal for its regulated gas and electric assets by increasing a regulatory liability. This liability is relieved when actual removal costs are incurred.

As described in Note 1, income taxes recoverable through future rates are the portion of our net deferred income tax liability that is applicable to our regulated business, but has not been reflected in the rates we charge our customers. These income taxes represent the tax effect of temporary differences in depreciation and the allowance for equity funds used during construction, offset by differences in deferred tax rates and deferred taxes on deferred investment tax credits. We amortize these amounts as the temporary differences reverse.

Deferred BGE Smart Energy Savers Program® costs are the costs incurred to implement demand response and conservation programs. These programs are designed to help BGE manage peak demand, improve system reliability, reduce customer consumption, and improve service to customers by giving customers greater control over their energy use. Actual marketing and customer bonus costs incurred in the demand response program, which began in January 2008, are being recovered over a 5-year amortization period from the date incurred pursuant to an order by the Maryland PSC. Fixed assets are recovered over the life of the equipment. Actual costs incurred in the conservation program are being amortized over a 5-year period with recovery beginning in 2010 pursuant to an order by the Maryland PSC.

Between 2007 and 2009, the Maryland PSC approved and BGE conducted a series of successful smart grid pilot programs for a total cost of $11.3 million, which, pursuant to a Maryland PSC order, was deferred in a regulatory asset, and, beginning with the Maryland PSC's March 2011 rate order, is earning a regulated rate of return. In August 2010, the Maryland PSC approved a comprehensive smart grid initiative for BGE that included the planned installation of 2 million residential and commercial electric and gas smart meters and modules. As part of the Maryland PSC's August 2010 order, BGE has been authorized to establish a separate regulatory asset for incremental costs incurred to implement the initiative, net depreciation and amortization associated with the meters, and an appropriate return on these costs. Additionally, the Maryland PSC order requires that BGE prove the cost-effectiveness of the entire smart grid initiative prior to seeking recovery of the costs deferred in these regulatory assets. Therefore, the commencement and timing of the amortization of these deferred costs is currently unknown.

In the Maryland PSC's March 2011 rate order, BGE was authorized to defer as a regulatory asset $15.8 million in storm costs incurred in February 2010. These costs are being amortized over a 5-year period that began in December 2010.

We record a regulatory asset for the deferred postretirement and postemployment benefit costs in excess of the costs we included in the rates we charged our customers through 1997. We began amortizing these costs over a 15-year period in 1998.

Deferred environmental costs are the estimated costs of investigating and cleaning up contaminated sites we own. We discuss this further in Note 12. We amortized $21.6 million of these costs (the amount we had incurred through October 1995) and $6.4 million of these costs (the amount we incurred from November 1995 through June 2000) over 10-year periods in accordance with the Maryland PSC's orders. We received rate relief for an additional $5.4 million of clean-up costs incurred during the period from July 2000 through November 2005 and an additional $1.0 million from December 2005 through November 2010. These costs are being amortized over a 10-year periods that began in January 2006 and December 2010, respectively.

The portion of the costs associated with our 2008 workforce reduction program that relate to BGE's gas business were deferred in 2009 as a regulatory asset in accordance with the Maryland PSC's orders in prior rate cases and are being amortized over a 5-year period that began in January 2009. Costs associated with a 2010 workforce reduction were deferred as a regulatory asset and are being amortized over a 5-year period that began in March 2011 in accordance with the Maryland PSC's March 2011 rate order.

Other regulatory assets are comprised of a variety of current assets and liabilities that primarily do not earn a regulatory rate of return due to their short-term nature.