As previously reported, BofA/Merrill Lynch analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith upgraded Black Hills to Buy from Neutral. He attributes the stock's recent underperformance to regulatory risk, noting that following an August filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in which the company proposed a PPA between Wygen I and utility affiliate Wyoming Electric, Wyoming's OCA filed comments and protests in opposition. Though he acknowledges risk pending any approval from FERC, he would expect a favorable ruling from the agency with them protecting coal from retiring via contract rejection. If FERC were to deny the PPA, which he views as unlikely, he would estimate around another 10c at risk in earnings in 2023. Also, this worst case scenario would likely be mitigated by backfilling the 60MW capacity need with other investments, contends Dumoulin-Smith.