Accounting principles generally accepted in the United States require cost-based, rate-regulated entities that meet certain criteria to reflect the authorized recovery of costs due to regulatory decisions in their financial statements. As a result, certain

costs are permitted to be capitalized rather than expensed because they can be recovered through rates. We record certain costs as regulatory assets when future recovery through customer rates is considered probable. Regulatory liabilities are recorded when it is probable that revenues will be reduced for amounts that will be credited to customers through the ratemaking process. Substantially all of our regulatory assets are recorded as a component of other current assets and deferred charges and other assets and our regulatory liabilities are recorded as a component of other current liabilities and deferred credits and other liabilities. Deferred gas costs are recorded either in other current assets or liabilities.


	March 31, 2026		September 30, 2025
	(In thousands)
Regulatory assets:
Pension and postretirement benefit costs	$	4,508	$	262
Infrastructure mechanisms (1)	424,630		314,047
Winter Storm Uri incremental costs	1,843		5,841

Deferred gas costs	132,354		140,626
Regulatory excess deferred taxes (2)	49,093		49,793
Recoverable loss on reacquired debt	2,819		2,903
Deferred pipeline record collection costs	34,911		39,035
System Safety and Integrity Riders (3)	41,478		43,625


Other	16,869		12,597
	$	708,505	$	608,729
Regulatory liabilities:
Regulatory excess deferred taxes (2)	$	152,503	$	190,274

Regulatory cost of removal obligation	647,575		641,019
Deferred gas costs	11,999		6,879

APT annual adjustment mechanism	128,148		99,393
Pension and postretirement benefit costs	292,213		291,351
Other	45,417		40,732
	$	1,277,855	$	1,269,648

(1)Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee have authorized infrastructure mechanisms that mitigate regulatory lag and allow for the deferral of eligible incurred costs related to qualifying capital expenditures until new rates are implemented. The investment and deferred costs are required to be included in the Company's next rate filing (rate case or annual rate filing) for recovery through base rates.

(2)Regulatory excess deferred taxes represent changes in our net deferred tax liability related to our cost of service ratemaking due to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the "TCJA"), a Kansas legislative change enacted in fiscal 2020, and a Louisiana legislative change enacted in fiscal 2025. See Note 12 to the condensed consolidated financial statements for further information.

(3)In our APT and West Texas Divisions and portions of our Mid-Tex Division, the RRC has approved the deferral of certain system safety and integrity costs incurred in excess of a specified benchmark. These costs are eligible for recovery in a future filing after such costs are approved by the RRC.