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.

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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What Does a Resilience Officer Do?

The Supreme Court Overturns the Chevron Doctrine, Gutting Federal Environmental Protections

Youths Win Landmark Settlement in Hawai'i That Enshrines “Life-Sustaining Climate Policy” Into Law

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Sierra Club Negotiates Settlement to Retire Nearly 900 MW of Tri-State Coal and Provide $70 Million in Transition Assistance

EPA Poised to Remove Loopholes from Nearly 20 Clean Air Act Regulations

Sierra Club Leads Diverse, Statewide Coalition on Petition to Illinois Pollution Control Board to Adopt Clean Cars, Trucks Rules

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Lawsuit Targets State of Utah for Failing to Protect the Great Salt Lake

September 6, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — Conservation and community groups sued the state of Utah today for its failure to ensure that enough water reaches the Great Salt Lake to prevent ecological collapse.

Sierra Club Files Suit Challenging Arizona Corporation Commission’s Approval of Coolidge Gas Plant Expansion

September 1, 2023

PHOENIX, AZ -- Today, Sierra Club filed a suit in Maricopa County Superior Court challenging the Arizona Corporation Commission’s (ACC) decision to approve Salt River Project’s revised proposal to expand the gas-fired Coolidge Generating Station in…

Lawsuit Challenges Massive Offshore Lease Sale for Failing to Properly Consider Gulf Communities and Climate

August 25, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gulf community and environmental groups sued the Department of the Interior today to challenge an offshore oil and gas lease sale that would offer up more than 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing. The…

Lawsuit Spurs Agreement to Better Protect Endangered Rice’s Whale From Offshore Drilling

August 24, 2023

BALTIMORE, MD — Under a settlement agreement approved today in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, federal agencies will seek better ways to protect the Rice’s whale – a critically endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico — and other imperiled…

Environmental Groups Sue Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, Governor Josh Shapiro for Not Holding Oil, Gas Companies Accountable for Abandoned Wells

August 23, 2023

HARRISBURG, PA — Today, PennFuture, the Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Protect Penn-Trafford, and Earthworks filed a joint lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including Governor Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly, challenging the…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired

Environmental Law

Environmental Law Program