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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September 6, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — Conservation and community groups sued the state of Utah today for its failure to ensure that enough water reaches the Great Salt Lake to prevent ecological collapse.

September 1, 2023

PHOENIX, AZ -- Today, Sierra Club filed a suit in Maricopa County Superior Court challenging the Arizona Corporation Commission’s (ACC) decision to approve Salt River Project’s revised proposal to expand the gas-fired Coolidge Generating Station in…

August 25, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gulf community and environmental groups sued the Department of the Interior today to challenge an offshore oil and gas lease sale that would offer up more than 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing. The…

August 24, 2023

BALTIMORE, MD — Under a settlement agreement approved today in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, federal agencies will seek better ways to protect the Rice’s whale – a critically endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico — and other imperiled…

August 23, 2023

HARRISBURG, PA — Today, PennFuture, the Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Protect Penn-Trafford, and Earthworks filed a joint lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including Governor Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly, challenging the…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired