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.
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.
Read MoreWe pair litigation with effective community organizing and strong local communications to build genuine, informed support from community members and government officials.
Sierra Club ELP in Lake Tahoe
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.
Find Out MoreThe Sierra Club announced a new “polluter watchdog” program today, by issuing Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) and state-based open records requests to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state regulators who are refusing to enforce…
The Klamath Tribes, affected landowners, and public interest organizations request rehearing on fracked gas export terminal and pipeline in southern Oregon.
New Orleans, LA -- Today, environmental groups filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) approval of the massive Annova LNG fracked gas export terminal proposed for southern Texas.
Great Falls, MT -- A federal judge ruled today that the US Army Corps of Engineers violated the law when it approved Nationwide Permit 12, a key water crossing permit for TC Energy’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and many other pipelines nationwide.
Late yesterday, Sierra Club’s legal team challenged EPA’s plan to reopen the Startup, Shutdown, Malfunction (SSM) loopholes in Texas, which would allow dirty industrial facilities like coal plants and oil refineries to release massive amounts of…
10M+
acres of wilderness protected
200+
lawsuits filed to resist Trump
1K+
miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked
382
coal plants retired