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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August 16, 2023

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – This week the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with polluters in a case that would have reduced air pollution in Wyoming’s national parks and public lands across the region.

August 14, 2023

Helena, MT - A  judge ruled in favor of Montana youth climate plaintiffs today, declaring the state is violating its own constitution by not protecting the right to a clean environment. Held v. Montana was the first-ever youth climate case to go to…

August 14, 2023

UTAH – Today the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a petition for review that would bring some of Utah’s worst polluting coal plants into compliance with the Clean Air Act’s visibility-protection provisions, instead enabling the Hunter and…

August 14, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — A Utah federal judge today dismissed two lawsuits, led by the state of Utah, that attempted to undo President Biden’s restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments and attacked the Antiquities Act as…

August 11, 2023

RICHMOND, VA — Today, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted motions by the federal government and Mountain Valley Pipeline to dismiss environmental groups’ pending legal challenges of recent federal authorizations of the project. 

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired