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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April 4, 2024

NEW ORLEANS, La. — Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the unsound approval of a massive deepwater oil export facility off the Gulf Coast near Brazoria County, Texas.

April 2, 2024

Boise, ID -- Today the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the City of Boise challenging a 70-year-old ordinance that unconstitutionally restricts the use of loudspeakers and megaphones in public spaces. The lawsuit asks Idaho’s federal court to…

April 1, 2024

Washington, D.C.: Last Friday, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Sustainable FERC Project filed a protest challenging Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) proposed capacity accreditation methodologies, arguing they threaten reliability…

March 29, 2024

Washington, D.C – In response to legal action by Earthjustice, Environment Integrity Project, the National Parks Conservation Association, and Sierra Club, the Environmental Protection Agency published notice of a proposed consent decree that…

March 27, 2024

BOW, NH. – Today, following negotiations with Sierra Club, The Conservation Law Foundation, and EPA, Granite Shore Power has committed to ending the era of coal in New England by retiring the coal-burning units at Merrimack and Schiller…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired