{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-introduces-bill-to-streamline-american-energy-projects", "Cotton Introduces Bill to Streamline American Energy Projects", "2025-12-02", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353\n\nDecember 2, 2025\n\nCotton Introduces Bill to Streamline American Energy Projects\n\nWashington, DC \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today introduced legislation to streamline America\u2019s energy projects by ensuring a project can move forward without being trapped in perpetual legal battles. The Curtailing Litigation Excess and Abuse Reform Act of 2025 (CLEAR Act) eliminates excessive litigation against energy projects while maintaining stringent environmental standards.\n\nCongressman Troy Balderson (Ohio-12) has introduced companion legislation in the House.\n\n\u201cCutting-edge American energy infrastructure is critical for everything from lowering energy costs to winning the AI race. Unfortunately, these projects often get delayed by frivolous litigation. My bill will end this nonsense and streamline the process to restore American energy dominance,\u201d said Senator Cotton.\n\n\u201cActivist groups have long weaponized our legal system to attack promising energy projects, filing lawsuit after lawsuit to grind progress to a halt. The CLEAR Act puts an end to this serial litigation. To unleash American energy, lower costs, and strengthen our energy security, we must restore predictability and common sense to our permitting system,\u201d said Congressman Balderson.\n\nText of the bill can be found here.\n\nThe CLEAR Act would:\n\nEnsure that once a court has ruled on an energy project, opponents can\u2019t drag it back into court repeatedly.\n\nPrevent activist groups from filing serial lawsuits to block projects they oppose ideologically, while still preserving legitimate avenues for oversight and enforcement.\n\nEnable critical energy infrastructure to be built faster by limiting costly delays.\n\nCreate certainty for investors and communities.\n\nMaintain exceptions for certain lawsuits after a project is running.\n\nSupport America\u2019s energy independence, grid reliability, and access to critical minerals needed for modern technology.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-introduces-bill-to-streamline-american-energy-projects"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3258280232548714, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}