** A major winter storm has left more than 1,000,000 customers without power and resulted in the cancellation of more than 16,000 flights, as heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain and frigid temperatures hit a massive swath of the U.S. this weekend.
** Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is suing some of the world’s largest oil companies, accusing them of colluding for decades to keep renewable energy and electric vehicles on the margins. The landmark lawsuit, filed Friday morning in the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan, seeks unspecified financial compensation and forfeiture of profits from oil giants BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and their subsidiaries, as well as the industry lobbying group American Petroleum Institute.
** Work is back underway at offshore wind farms off New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia, nearly a month after the Trump administration ordered them to pause construction.
** Georgia lawmakers consider legislation to alter data centers’ tax breaks and regulate how they use energy.
** Colorado lawmakers are set to consider dueling bills that would provide tax incentives to developers, and require the facilities to pay for necessary grid upgrades.
** EV maker Rivian pledges $4.6 million to support a proposed Washington state ballot measure that would rescind a law — from which Tesla is exempt — banning direct EV sales from the manufacturer.
** New Jersey’s new governor, Mikie Sherrill, signs orders aimed at lowering energy costs by boosting solar and battery capacity and laying the groundwork for more virtual power plants.
World
** Venezuelan lawmakers have backed a plan that would make it easier for foreign companies to participate in the country’s oil industry, in the latest move by Caracas to meet the demands of US President Donald Trump.
** The Trump administration is allowing China to purchase Venezuelan oil but not at “unfair, undercut” prices at which Caracas sold the crude before the U.S. removed President Nicolas Maduro, a U.S. official said.
** China is set to ramp up imports of Russian oil in January, absorbing barrels that would have previously gone to India and Turkey, as tougher Western sanctions force Moscow to redirect flows, LSEG data and traders said.
** Two oil tankers seized this month by the U.S. in its campaign against Venezuela were near Puerto Rico on Wednesday, a Reuters witness and Tankertrackers.com data said, the first sightings almost since their capture and a possible hint at their destination.
** France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said.
** Japan has suspended operations at the world’s largest nuclear power plant, hours after its restart, its operator has said. An alarm sounded “during reactor-start-up procedures” at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa north-west of Tokyo but the reactor remained “stable”, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) spokesperson Takashi Kobayashi said.