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.

Read More

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.

Donate To ELP Today

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.

Find Out More
August 20, 2021

St. Louis, MO -- Ameren Missouri’s appeal of a lower court ruling that required the utility to add pollution controls to its Rush Island and Labadie coal plants was partially successful. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit confirmed…

August 19, 2021

On August 11, the Sierra Club filed a petition for reconsideration of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision to omit Ottawa County from the agency’s list of areas across the country that are out of attainment with health-based federal…

August 17, 2021

EL PASO, TX --  Today, the Chaparral Coalition for Community Health and the Environment, the Sierra Club, and Earthworks (the Community Groups) reached an agreement with El Paso Electric (EPE) that will substantially reduce air pollution in El…

August 3, 2021

Washington, DC -- In a victory for Gulf Coast communities, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) failed to conduct an adequate analysis of the climate and…

August 2, 2021

Consumers Energy filed its electric and gas energy efficiency (referred to in Michigan as “energy waste reduction”) plans to reduce energy waste in the service territory with the Michigan Public Service Commission on August 2.

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired