Question 9

The Trump administration's assault on climate, clean energy, public lands, wilderness areas and environmental law isn't just policy—it's an attack on communities' ability to protect themselves and the planet. Sierra Club must meet this threat with strategic precision. 

Clean energy's momentum defies partisan narratives. Texas generates more wind power than the next three states combined. California dominates solar production. Hostile federal policies can't stop states but it can slow these efforts. Against that backdrop, we're fighting on every available front. Our legal teams are flooding courts with challenges to rollbacks. Our policy experts are pursuing every regulatory opening. But litigation alone won't save us. Real power lies in states and communities.

Sierra Club chapters are channeling state momentum, advancing renewable standards and utility accountability while exposing "false solutions" that perpetuate fossil dependency. Land and water protection demands different tactics. Indigenous sovereignty isn't a talking point—it's the foundation. In Michigan, a coalition I help coordinate fights to decommission a 72-year-old oil pipeline threatening the Great Lakes, understanding that frontline communities must lead, not follow.

These aren't separate fights. The administration dismantling clean energy incentives is the same one opening protected lands to drilling and silencing climate scientists. Our climate campaigns and public lands work reinforce each other, protecting forests that sequester carbon while fighting the fossil fuel extraction that would destroy them. We build state-level power not just to advance renewable energy, but to defend parks and waterways. This integrated approach is Sierra Club's strength.

Two things we must do are to better fund our strong Environmental Law Program as a means of countering Trump attacks, and focus on clean energy and lands/habitat protection at the state level in places where wins are possible. We need to emphasize that renewable energy lowers costs for consumers, as our Beyond Coal Campaign has successfully argued to state public utility commissions for many years now. We also need a strong Political Program to help elect a friendlier Congress in 2026 and elect better officials: even one House of Congress would give us far more leverage to block bad actions.

It's not hyperbolic to say that we are facing historic opposition forces. Strategies that worked in the past are no longer viable. Fortunately, the Sierra Club attracts the most passionate and dynamic people on the planet. We can form coalitions with people who might have differing political views by appealing to a commonsense desire to save money while maintaining a habitable climate for our children.

Our Environmental Law Program is unparalleled in their efficiency, understanding, and abilities. In addition to ensuring that we are providing ELP with every tool they need to continue these legal fights at every level, we also need to check in consistently with ELP leadership and regional leaders to carefully weigh what kinds of impact litigation could still be effective at this point in time.

Aside from prioritizing our invaluable legal resources we must be ready for these fights at state levels. The Trump Administration has shown that all of our core issues can effectively become states’ rights issues in a short amount of time. Many of our chapters already possess relationships and credibility in their states to make meaningful change. As an organization we need to be looking at statewide work across the country to accomplish our goals and building power to win statewide changes in the long term across the country. We must ensure that we equip our chapters with resources to engage in legal or legislative efforts, while also ensuring that our national campaign staff can provide their expertise and guidance for those efforts across regions.

Sierra Club’s unique, grassroots structure gives us more tools to engage in these critical fights than other organizations. Many of the decisions on our energy future and public lands happen at state and local levels. Advocating for strong policies, defending existing laws, seeking enforcement through the courts and electing leaders who will do the hard work of adopting and implementing the policies at state and local levels are all components of our efforts. 

But there is more to it than that. We live in an era of disinformation and misinformation designed to undermine public understanding of the challenges we face and the potential solutions we can implement. Sierra Club uses mainstream media on our key issues and is growing our presence on social media, but in an era of constantly changing communication and engagement forums and tools we need to continually assess our capacity to reach those who need to hear our message. One challenge in an organization as diverse as ours, to steal John Muir’s phrase, is how to hitch everything together. Above I urged that every person who is a Sierra Club leader or staff member play a role in telling the story of what Sierra Club does, and organize by talking with one person then another. Our ability to empower every Sierra Club volunteer and staff member to share accurate information about these issues and how we are working to address them is a big step in the right direction.

The Sierra Club can do more with highlighting the options for alternative energy sources across the nation and in various communities while helping to promote and support protections in place to preserve land and energy. 

The 2030 strategic framework firmly rooted in our Core Values provides the vision for the world Sierra Club wants to conserve, protect, and create.

Sierra Club’s strength comes from building long term peoplepower: members organizing locally, advocating boldly, and standing together to defend our land, water, wildlife, and communities.

Right now, the most effective path forward can be strong state and local action. We can effectively support clean energy and land protection against federal rollbacks by using every tool available—legal action, public education, corporate accountability campaigns, and grassroots mobilization—to defend hard-won environmental protections, stop unlawful actions and harmful policies. Advancing state clean energy standards, land conservation policies, Community Choice Aggregation, and smart permitting reforms allows us to accelerate renewable energy while protecting sensitive habitats through “least-conflict” siting.

Sierra Club’s 2025 wins, highlights the Conservation Campaign’s effective efforts to protect grizzly bears under the Endangered Species Act, secure new national monuments, defend the Roadless Rule, and block public lands sell-offs, while simultaneously, our Beyond Coal Campaign fought for an affordable, renewable future to move towards advancing grid decarbonization and making electricity more affordable for all.

I believe and shared in this Sierra Magazine article that we win by collective action, building a strong and just grassroots movement, mobilizing our peoplepower, centering Indigenous and frontline voices, and building broad coalitions, to meet this moment with courage and determination.

The challenges are real —but so is our power. Together, we will continue to protect our planet and build a just, clean energy future.