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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September 12, 2024

CHICAGO, IL – Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson ruled Monday that the Trump International Hotel & Tower violated and is in violation of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act and committed a continuing public nuisance through…

July 29, 2024

Groups submitted a request for rehearing to challenge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of Venture Global’s proposed methane gas export facility, CP2 LNG. FERC made the highly controversial decision at its June meeting with a slim…

July 16, 2024

Today, the US Court of Appeals for the DC District agreed that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission failed to fully and adequately assess the cumulative and direct environmental and health impacts that would be caused by air pollution from…

July 15, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO – A coalition of environmental groups and consumer advocates—Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Utility Consumers’ Action Network and Climate Action Campaign—filed a motion today with the California Public Utilities…

July 15, 2024

EPA will be required to decide – no later than May 30, 2025 – if the plan submitted by TCEQ complies with the Clean Air Act’s Regional Haze Rule. EPA could either approve the do-nothing state plan, partially approve it, or reject it and then issue a…

10M+

acres of wilderness protected

200+

lawsuits filed to resist Trump

1K+

miles of dirty fuel pipelines blocked

382

coal plants retired