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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June 7, 2018

Today, environmental and public health advocates filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to halt construction on a dangerous hydraulic fracturing (fracking) project within feet of Bella Romero Academy in Greeley, Colorado.

May 31, 2018

California Public Utilities Commission Approves Single Largest Investment in EV Infrastructure. California’s Three Largest Utilities Will Invest Over $700 Million in clean transportation projects Today, the California Public Utilities Commission (…

May 24, 2018

Great Falls, Mont. – Environmental and landowner groups today argued in federal court that the Trump administration’s rubber-stamp approval of a cross-border permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline violated environmental laws and should be…

May 15, 2018

Richmond, VA -- Today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Incidental Take permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The permit, granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, authorizes construction efforts to take certain threatened and…

April 25, 2018

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio issued an order approving a settlement agreement reached by the Sierra Club, AEP, Commission Staff and other stakeholders last fall.

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired