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 13, 2021

ROME, GA -- Sierra Club’s analysis of Georgia Power’s preferred closure method for Plant Hammond Ash Pond-3 (AP-3) shows it does not adequately protect against groundwater contamination, risking the water supplies near the plant and downstream. 

September 9, 2021

WASHINGTON — NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council), together with Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project, sued the Environmental Protection Agency today to force it to fulfill its Clean Air Act obligations and require states to…

September 9, 2021

Washington, D.C. -- Today President Joe Biden nominated Willie Phillips to fill a vacant position on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the nation’s independent energy regulator. FERC will play a key role in helping transform our power…

September 8, 2021

Sierra Club and Potomac Riverkeeper Network, in accordance with the Clean Water Act, filed suit against VEPCO, a subsidiary of Dominion for violating and continuing to violate “an effluent standard or limitation” and continuing to violate its…

September 3, 2021

Today, a settlement agreement was filed between Madison Gas and Electric Company (MGE), Sierra Club, Clean Wisconsin, Citizens Utility Board, RENEW Wisconsin, the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, and Wisconsin Industrial…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired