Far From Closure: No Consensus Yet on Accounting Proposal for Decommissioning

Fortnightly Magazine - September 15 1997
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In aiming to make financial statements more meaningful, will FASB instead make them indecipherable?

By mid-summer, a total of 123 companies had cranked out some 574 pages of comments, detailing exactly what they thought of the accounting rules proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to cover the closure or removal of certain long-lived assets. %n1%n The FASB's"Exposure Draft," issued early last year, had requested comments on eight issues. The respondents answered as requested, but also raised a host of new questions.

The proposed financial accounting standards pertain to nuclear plant decommissioning and other similar legal obligations. If adopted, the standards would alter the accounting and depreciation practices of all utilities.

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