The disruptive effects of climate change are intensifying. At the United Nations COP28 in December 2023, the international community agreed: energy systems must transition away from the use of fossil fuels. There is time pressure to move fast to avert further climate chaos. In the United States, individual states have adopted renewable and clean energy goals, signaling their efforts to decarbonize energy systems. Many states see offshore wind energy as an important contributor to those goals, and the industry expanded quickly off the ocean coasts during the Biden-Harris Administration. In the early days of the Trump Administration, the federal government announced it is reversing its support for offshore wind, which will reverberate along the ocean coastal states.

     The Great Lakes region presents a different context. The Great Lakes states have not been as influenced by federal offshore wind policy; they were neither spurred to action nor should they be thwarted by changes at the federal level. This is due in part to the federal leasing agency not having the same jurisdiction and authority in the Great Lakes as it has in the oceans. The onus for offshore wind in the Great Lakes rests upon Great Lakes states because they are trustees of the public lakebed and have exclusive jurisdiction over lakebed leasing. 

     The National Renewable Energy Laboratory assessed that five of the eight Great Lakes coastal states have offshore wind energy potential that exceeds the amount of electricity they consume. Modeling of how the Great Lakes states reach 95% decarbonized electricity by 2050 identified Great Lakes offshore wind as a critical piece of the puzzle.   

     If Great Lakes states are interested in capturing that wind energy potential, a first step is to engage in planning to evaluate the environmental, social, and financial costs and benefits of this resource. We examine two case studies of offshore wind development in state waters: Icebreaker Wind in Ohio and Block Island Wind in Rhode Island. Through these case studies, we explore existing coastal zone management tools for states to use for offshore wind planning. We then examine regional collaborations for offshore wind management in the Great Lakes and the Atlantic coast regions. Regional collaboration is an opportunity to promote information exchange, data sharing, and streamlined regulatory processes, which are particularly important in the Great Lakes region because states are responsible for managing the Great Lakes as public trust resources with broadly shared benefits. We offer recommendations for how to use existing planning tools to explore the offshore wind potential of the Great Lakes.