** A powerful winter storm brought damaging wind gusts and heavy rain to the Pacific Northwest, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Washington.
** A proposed $5.5 billion sustainable aviation fuel plant in southern Nebraska could have tens of millions of dollars in economic impact from direct and indirect jobs, according to a study by Nebraska Public Power District.
** The federal Bureau of Land Management plans to auction 6,061 acres in western Utah for geothermal power development.
** Austin, Texas’ transit agency shelves 46 electric buses for at least a year because the company that makes them went bankrupt and there aren’t yet enough chargers to keep them running all day.
** U.S. corporations are commissioning record levels of combined solar and storage deployments, with large tech and retail companies leading the way, according to a new industry report.
World
** Brazil is moving forward with plans to import natural gas from Argentina’s Vaca Muerta formation in a sign that bilateral business deals can overcome a complicated political relationship.
** Petrobras plans to boost spending on new oil drilling and other projects by almost 9% to $111 billion in the next five-year plan. The Brazilian oil giant’s eight-person executive office proposed that amount for the 2025-2029 period, according to a filing Monday.
** Italian energy giant Enel is placing a bet on small modular nuclear reactors through a partnership with Ansaldo, another Italian energy company, and Leonardo, a defense contractor. The new company is expected to be announced in the coming days.
** The US has boosted sales of liquefied natural gas to China this year, although the surge may not last if the incoming Trump administration collides with Beijing over trade.
** Most of India’s coal-burning plants are set to again fall short of a major pollution target, adding to the deadly smog that’s enveloped large parts of the country. About three-quarters of the coal-fired generators near major cities are set to miss a year-end deadline to install equipment to curb sulfur-dioxide emissions.