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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February 7, 2018

Today, the Sierra Club issues the following regarding continued efforts by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC to sidestep a court’s order to vacate the pipeline Certificate, which would have the effect…

January 23, 2018

Today, environmental groups, Tribes, Youth Climate Intervenors, and other stakeholders submitted their briefs on Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 tar sands pipeline. In their briefs, the groups laid out the reasons Enbridge should not be granted the…

January 12, 2018

Trump Administration attacks vulnerable wildlife again./

January 11, 2018

San Francisco, CA-- Today the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) took a massive step toward a clean energy future by passing a resolution that will order Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, to buy…

January 9, 2018

Late yesterday, a coalition of environmental groups took legal action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to halt start of construction of the fracked-gas Mountain Valley Pipeline.

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired