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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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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January 10, 2024

Conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service today for failing to protect streams in the Cherry River watershed from the harmful effects of coal hauling in the Monongahela National Forest.

December 20, 2023

The Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club filed notice today of their intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to ensure that areas in 11 states and two U.S. territories have effective plans for cleaning up…

December 19, 2023

LOS ANGELES — A federal district court judge denied an effort by the trucking and airline industry to derail a regulation on Friday requiring warehouses across the Los Angeles region, including the Inland Empire, to clean up pollution stemming from…

December 4, 2023

LAKE CHARLES, La. — Local and national organizations, including the Sierra Club, For a Better Bayou, Micah 6:8 Mission, Vessel Project, and Healthy Gulf, successfully challenged Magnolia LNG’s request for an extension on its export license for…

November 29, 2023

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Today, the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter joined with PennFuture, Clean Air Council, and Environmental Defense Fund to file appeals to the Commonwealth Court’s ruling earlier this month that blocked the state from joining the…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired