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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July 29, 2020

INDIANAPOLIS -- Today, the Sierra Club appealed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s (IURC) decision approving a $146 million rate increase for Duke Energy Indiana’s customers.

July 28, 2020

Charleston, WV -- Yesterday, the federal district court for the Southern District of West Virginia ruled that the Justice Group’s Red Fox coal mine was liable for more than 3,000 Clean Water Act violations. The lawsuit brought by the West Virginia…

July 27, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced its plans to evaluate the EPA’s rollback - finalized in March - of the clean car standards, which are the corporate average fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for…

July 27, 2020

WASHINGTON DC.--Today the Sierra Club and Conservation Law Foundation filed an appeal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) water pollution permit for the Merrimack Station coal-fired power plant. The updated permit, which was…

July 22, 2020

WASHINGTON, DC— Today, the Sierra Club, American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Border Communities Coalition asked the Supreme Court to halt construction of President Trump’s border wall. In the motion, the groups urge the court to lift an…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired