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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April 7, 2020

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…

April 3, 2020

TOPEKA, KS -- Earlier today, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that utilities cannot charge customers who generate their own power more than customers who do not. The Court ruled in favor of Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, and Vote Solar, who challenged…

March 27, 2020

Today, the Sierra Club joined local residents and the City of Port Isabel in filing a set of lawsuits challenging approvals for three highly polluting fracked gas export terminals in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.

March 19, 2020

In the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic and national health emergency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) conditionally approved the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline today. The approval…

March 18, 2020

ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) issued an order today that will keep fixed rates flat and increase funding for low-income assistance programs. By improving Ameren’s long-term planning, it also sets the stage to increase…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired