CLEAR Act of 2025
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Balderson introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The CLEAR Act of 2025 dramatically limits legal challenges to energy projects including oil and gas extraction, pipelines, electric utilities, and critical mineral mining. Once any lawsuit against an energy project is decided by a court, no additional lawsuits can ever be filed against that project by anyone, for any reason. The bill also requires courts to defer to agency decisions and makes it much harder to challenge permits.
Who Benefits and How
Oil and gas companies, pipeline operators, electric utilities, and mining companies benefit significantly from reduced litigation risk. Once they survive a single legal challenge, they are permanently protected from future lawsuits. Energy project investors gain certainty that approved projects cannot be derailed by repeat litigation. Federal agencies like FERC and DOI benefit from reduced judicial oversight of their permitting decisions.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Environmental organizations and public interest law firms lose the ability to bring successive legal challenges when new issues or harms emerge. Community groups near energy projects face increased risks because they cannot sue over problems that develop after an initial case is resolved. People who did not participate in original public comment periods are barred from ever challenging projects in court. The 150-day deadline to file suit creates a tight window that may exclude affected parties.
Key Provisions
- After one lawsuit is decided, courts lose jurisdiction to hear any future challenges to the same energy project, regardless of who sues or what issue is raised
- Courts must defer to agency judgment and can only find violations if agencies "abused substantial discretion" (an extremely high bar)
- Even when courts find problems, permits stay in effect while agencies have 180 days to fix deficiencies
- Only parties who submitted detailed public comments during the original comment period can sue, and must file within 150 days
- The broad definition of "energy project" covers fossil fuels, electric generation, transmission, storage, pipelines, and critical mineral extraction
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Limits litigation against energy projects by barring repeat lawsuits after a single final adjudication and requiring courts to defer to agency decisions on energy project authorizations.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Reduce legal barriers to energy project development by limiting litigation opportunities and requiring deference to agency decisions"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Oil and gas companies developing new projects
- Electric utilities building generation and transmission infrastructure
- Critical mineral mining companies
- Pipeline operators
- Energy project developers and investors
Likely Burden Bearers
- Environmental advocacy organizations
- Community groups opposing energy projects
- Landowners and residents near energy projects
- Public interest litigation organizations
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "state_agency"
- → A State agency participating in or administering a review required under Federal law
- "federal_agency"
- → Any Federal agency that issues an authorization for an energy project
- "project_sponsor"
- → The entity developing or operating the energy project
- "court"
- → Federal or State court reviewing a legal action
- "federal_agency"
- → Any Federal agency that issues an authorization for an energy project
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any license, permit, approval, finding, determination, or administrative decision issued by an agency and any interagency consultation required or authorized under Federal law to site, construct, reconstruct, or commence operations of an energy project administered by a Federal agency or participating State agency.
The earlier of the date the energy project commences commercial operation or begins production or delivery of energy or resources. Does not include construction activities.
A project for development of a facility for: (1) generation, transmission, distribution, or storage of electric energy; (2) production, processing, transportation, or delivery of fossil fuels, petroleum-derived fuels, or petrochemical feedstocks; or (3) extraction, processing, refining, recycling, or transportation of critical minerals essential to energy production, grid reliability, or national security.
A legal claim in Federal or State court to remand, reverse, rescind, overturn, modify, or seek judicial relief regarding an authorization for an energy project. Excludes eminent domain fair market value claims by landowners.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology