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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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 Stations in…

March 21, 2024

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must correct legal errors with a regulation that allows oil and gas companies to harass Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears on the North Slope of Alaska.

March 13, 2024

Final Rule Significantly Curtailed Emissions Disclosure Requirements Despite Widespread Support

March 12, 2024

Today, Sierra Club and allies filed legal responses to American Petroleum Institute and Commonwealth LNG requests for rehearing of Department of Energy’s pause on review of new applications for methane gas exports, or LNG. The groups make clear that…

March 1, 2024

Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld in part and vacated in part a landmark 2015 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule requiring that 36 states close loopholes polluters use to emit…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

372

coal plants retired