A Year of Oversight & Accountability: Sierra Club FOIAs Have Uncovered Oil & Gas Handouts, Canceled Grants, Opposition to Whitewashing of History, & More

Washington, DC — Today, the Sierra Club is highlighting the transparency generated by the organization’s Environmental Law Program in the first year of Donald Trump’s second term in office. Sierra Club lawyers launched a robust Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) accountability effort one year ago, at the start of the second Trump Administration, to help the American people see clearly the connections between the fossil fuel industry, its costly and dangerous agenda, and the policies of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, and other agencies. The results have been eye-opening.

As the Trump Administration spent the last year decimating environmental regulations and agencies, the Sierra Club has released thousands of documents that showcase the influence and preferential treatment of the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries. This includes:

• Revealing the industries — including coal, steel, and chemicals facilities — that requested and were quickly granted exemptions from Clean Air Act pollution control requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency, as featured in the New York Times
• Discovering that the Trump Administration rescinded and left vacant thousands of critical jobs, including park rangers, science technicians, and maintenance mechanics at the Department of the Interior
• Highlighting the widespread opposition to the Trump Administration’s attempt to rewrite American history in national parks
• Releasing the countless grants canceled by the Environmental Protection Agency that were intended to help mostly lower-income communities face climate and environmental risks, covered by E&E News 

The Sierra Club has also filed numerous lawsuits against the Trump Administration for failing to respond to FOIA requests. In some instances, the Administration has already turned over hundreds of emails, texts, and other records as a result, with many more records on the way as the cases progress. Those lawsuits include:

• Lawsuit against the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, for failing to provide materials in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the organization
• Lawsuit against the Department of Transportation for withholding records on their unlawful funding freeze and external communications records
• Lawsuit against the Department of the Interior for failing to respond to requests on external communications for key Interior staff, including Secretary Doug Burgum, acting assistant secretaries, and designated DOGE staff
• Lawsuit against the Department of Energy for failing to respond to requests for calendars and correspondence from 30 new political appointees, including Secretary Chris Wright and embedded DOGE staffers, among others
• Lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget for its failure to respond to three Freedom of Information Act requests, which seek OMB’s records and communications related to freezing Congressionally appropriated funding, as well as communications between key OMB and the Department of Government Efficiency—or DOGE—staff and external parties who may be influencing federal decision-making.

“The Trump administration continues to put the interests of the fossil fuel industry and corporate polluters ahead of the health and wellbeing of our communities, making our work to shine a light on what is happening even more critical,” said Joanne Spalding, Director of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. “We will continue to work to uncover the documents that expose these connections so the American people know what they’re government is doing and exactly how it might impact their family’s health or financial future.”

Documents that Sierra Club has received via FOIA are available to view, including:

• Thousands of pages of EPA’s external communications, air pollution exemption requests, calendars, terminations and vacant roles, and funding freeze correspondence
• Department of Transportation’s external communications, including emails from Congressional offices requesting grants to be honored, and meetings
• Department of Energy’s external communications and industry meetings
• Records from the Department of the Interior on jobs rescinded or left vacant; as well as public responses to efforts to whitewash history on public lands from DOI’s Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation.

During Trump’s first Administration, the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program’s FOIA work was crucial in exposing numerous scandals. Most notably, the Sierra Club’s efforts helped lead to the resignation of Trump’s first EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.