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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May 31, 2019

An administrative law judge is allowing Tampa Electric Company (TECO) to move forward with plans to burn fracked gas and more coal at their Tampa-area Big Bend plant.

May 24, 2019

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal court today issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from constructing the president’s border wall using funds illegally transferred from military accounts, including pension and pay funds, under…

May 17, 2019

Oakland, CA-- Today, after hearing arguments from declarentes from the Sierra Club, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC)’s over their preliminary injunction motion on their challenge of Trump’s…

May 10, 2019

Washington, DC--  Today, the Trump administration announced they will steal $1.5 billion in Pentagon funds to construct 80 more miles of wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The move brings the total transferred out of the Pentagon budget for border…

May 7, 2019

TEXAS - Today, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the agency’s failure to increase protections in numerous communities that…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired