Energy in America

Stocks rallied to records Monday on expectations that lower taxes will lead to even bigger profits for companies.

The tax bill approved by the U.S. Senate will open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, something Alaska's lawmakers have tried to do for decades.

Ecuador has agreed to pay $337 million to ConocoPhillips-subsidiary Burlington Resources five years after a ruling that the South American nation illegally expropriated valuable oil assets.

___ $69B Aetna bid pushes CVS deeper into consumers' lives CVS Health says its $69-billion acquisition of the insurer Aetna will help create a customer "front door" to health care through the chain's network of nearly 10,000 stores.

The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline dropped nationally over the past two weeks.

The Latest on the GOP tax bill (all times local): 6:55 a.m.

Regulators have reached a settlement with Mississippi Power Co. on how much customers should pay for a troubled $7.5 billion power plant once touted as the future of coal.

The Latest on a disputed Mississippi power plant (all times local): 4 p.m.

A report prepared for Dominion Energy found it would be far cheaper and quicker to close the company's largest Virginia coal ash ponds by leaving them in place and putting a cover over them rather than recycling the ash or moving it to lined landfills.

Venezuela's chief prosecutor says a cousin of former Venezuelan oil czar Rafael Ramirez has been arrested in an investigation into a series of accounts in an Andorran bank suspected of being used to launder about $1.6 billion.

A small Montana company that landed and lost a $300 million contract to restore Puerto Rico's hurricane-shattered electric grid is suing a subcontractor for allegedly interfering with tens of millions of dollars in payments.

A Massachusetts company is abandoning its long-stalled plans for a wind farm off Cape Cod.

___ Top Republican claims enough votes for Senate OK of tax bill WASHINGTON (AP) — A $1.4 trillion tax bill written by Republicans is headed toward passage after some last-minute wrangling.

Regulators reach settlement with Mississippi Power Co. on how much customers should pay for a troubled $7.5B power plant.

State utilities regulators on Thursday approved a nearly $37 million per year rate hike for Eversource's Massachusetts electric customers that was much smaller than requested, but still drew the ire of the state attorney general.

The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. went up by six this week to 929.

Asian stock markets were mostly higher Friday, after an overnight recovery of technology stocks on Wall Street.

The oil and gas division of Copenhagen-based conglomerate AP Moller-Maersk says it will invest 21 billion kroner ($3.4 billion) together with British-Dutch oil multinational Shell, among others, in Denmark's largest gas field in the North Sea.

The world's biggest lithium-ion battery has plugged into an Australian state grid, an official said Friday, easily delivering on Tesla Inc. chief executive Elon Musk's 100-day guarantee.