Environmental Law

Environmental Law Program

Environmental Law Program

The Environmental Law Program uses strategic legal campaigns to fight climate change, to protect clean air, water and wilderness, and to promote justice for communities threatened by pollution.


In the past year alone, we launched more than 200 legal actions to challenge the fossil fuel industry's destructive effects on our air, water, and climate.

About Our Program

Our team of top-notch attorneys and legal staff leverages all of the Club's tools of democracy, integrating legal advocacy with grassroots organizing, sophisticated communications, a state-of-the-art digital strategies team, and administrative lobbying.

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Support the Environmental Law Program

We pair litigation with effective community organizing and strong local communications to build genuine, informed support from community members and government officials.

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Sierra Club ELP in Lake Tahoe

Our Staff

We are a team of professional attorneys and staff who combine sophisticated legal tactics with a commitment to social and environmental justice at the grassroots level. We pair litigation with effective community organizing and strong local communications to build genuine, informed support from community members and government officials, making courtroom victories sustainable over the long term.

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September 3, 2021

Today, a settlement agreement was filed between Madison Gas and Electric Company (MGE), Sierra Club, Clean Wisconsin, Citizens Utility Board, RENEW Wisconsin, the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, and Wisconsin Industrial…

September 2, 2021

A regional coalition of conservation groups commented on PacifiCorp’s 2021 Integrated Resource Plan that was filed today in the six states the utility serves, highlighting the plan’s failure to meet the recommendations of global scientists to…

September 2, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC -- Late last night, a narrowly divided Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ignored its precedent and undermined the Constitutional rights of millions of people by declining to block Texas’ abortion ban (S.B. 8). S.B. 8, which took effect Tuesday,…

August 25, 2021

Richmond, VA -- Today, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) issued a draft water quality certification for the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline under section 401 of the Clean Water Act. In March, the VADEQ asked the Army…

August 24, 2021

Responding to continuing pressure from community groups, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement (OSMRE) announced its formal determination that West Virginia is violating the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired