John L. Clancy

John Clancy is a shareholder and the leader of G&K’s Energy Strategies Practice Group and its Indian Nations Group.

John provides environmental and energy-related services to a wide variety of entities, including tribal, industrial, commercial, municipal and trade association clients.

John’s energy-related work includes: (1) finance and development of renewable energy and large energy-efficiency projects, including combining tax credit financing, grant funding and other funding sources, for energy users, developers and investors, (2) assistance with tribal energy projects, including strategies to combine federal grants available to tribes with tax credit financing and other financial incentives to cost-effectively develop renewable and other energy projects for tribal governmental buildings, casinos, homes and other facilities, (3) preparation of federal and other grants and funding requests for energy generation and energy-efficiency projects, (4) development of tribal energy utility entities and tribal energy codes, (5) assistance in siting and other approvals for renewable and other energy projects, including Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission for utility-scale energy projects, (6) environmental and land-use permitting for energy projects, (7) energy transmission and distribution facility right-of-way matters, including representation of affected landowners and of tribes with respect to their sovereign rights under 24 C.F.R. Part 169, including their rights to tax energy facilities and to determine appropriate consent fees for right-of-ways, (8) other land use issues and disputes regarding energy facilities, (9) negotiation of power purchase agreements (PPAs), renewable energy facility leases, co-generation facility agreements, and purchases and sales of energy facilities, (10) certification and transfers of renewable energy credits (RECs), (11) negotiation of individualized energy tariffs and of energy agreements under energy tariffs to lower energy costs, and (12) intervention in regulatory rate and other Public Service Commission cases.

In the environmental arena, John has represented clients with respect to a wide variety of environmental issues, including brownfield redevelopment, mining and mining waste matters, phosphorous credit generation and trading, solid-waste landfill siting issues, and solid and hazardous waste site closure and site remediations, and has provided National Environmental Policy Act, Superfund, RCRA, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Act counseling and litigation services. John also works with clients to develop and implement strategies to quantify and lower their environmental footprints.

John also represents tribal clients on reservation protection initiatives, including securing and employing tribal regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act Treatment-as-State programs, obtaining and enforcing Tribal Class I Air status and rights, and opposition to highly impactful projects, such as sulfide metallic mines. John received the Leader in Law award from the Wisconsin Law Journal for his successful representation of the Forest County Potawatomi Community with respect to their opposition of the proposed Crandon Mine and has assisted the Bad River Tribe of Lake Superior Indians with respect to its mining impact concerns.