There is a lot going on in the U.S. today. We are two weeks away, less than two weeks away from Donald Trump becoming president once again. He's made some crazy hot takes right now. He said that he is going to buy Greenland, he is going to take back the Panama Canal, and he's going to make my country the 51st state of the U.S., which...
A couple things to say about that. He also says he's gonna rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and He wants to drill now President Joe Biden now Joe Biden is still president and he has something to say about that drilling He did something this week that is pretty interesting and we're gonna talk about it on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast Let's start the show Hey, everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
your host, Andrew Lewin. This is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. If you're new here because you came because of the crazy news,
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you. So speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter. Let's get into the news because stuff that's coming out of the U.S. since 2025 has begun. It's been a little crazy, to be honest, some good, some terrible ideas, some terrible ideas. I'll be honest, some of the terrible ideas are Annexing Canada as a 51st state? That doesn't happen. That's not gonna happen. We're a sovereign country. Sorry, Donald Trump. That's not gonna happen. Buying Greenland
that's owned by Denmark? Nope, not gonna happen. Taking back the Panama Canal? That'll be interesting to see how that happens. I don't think that'll happen. It belongs to Panama. They've said no. I don't think it's happening. And now, this week, Donald Trump has announced that he wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to
the Gulf of, you guessed it, America. Now this is an interesting one and I want to start off with this because these are these are pretty hot takes and and I don't want to comment necessarily on you know, his policies or anything like that. But when it comes to oceans, when it comes to marine conservation, we have to talk about this. We are also gonna talk about President Biden's actions about banning oil drilling by going through a certain act that was inaugurated or put to force in
1956, which is a pretty smart move. I don't know if that'll help, but it's a pretty smart move. We'll also talk about the monuments and the marine protected areas that he expanded and renamed. We're gonna talk about that all today. Like I said, a lot of stuff has happened in the US. But let's start with changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf
of America. That can't really happen. The United States cannot unilaterally rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America because the naming of geographic features, particularly international bodies of water, involves historical, cultural and diplomatic considerations that transcend any one nation's authority. That's the first thing, the first question I had is like, can he actually do this? I mean, he can do it where he has everybody in the US call it Gulf of America, but the
rest of the world will still call it the Gulf of Mexico. So when it comes to international recognition, the Gulf of Mexico's name is internationally recognized as used in treaties, maps, and documents worldwide. Changing it would require significant international consensus, which they're never going to get. The name reflects historical and geographical realities as the Gulf borders not only the United States, but also Mexico and
Cuba. So are we going to call it the Gulf of Cuba? Or are they going to call it the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba, and America? Can't do that. It's not going to happen. Historical and cultural significance. The name Gulf of Mexico has been used since the 16th century and reflects the region's history, including Spanish exploration and
the influence of Mexico. International naming bodies. Geographic names are often standardized through organizations like the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, the UNGEGN, they love, United Nations loves their acronyms, and other international bodies. Any attempt to rename the Gulf would require international agreement, which they're not going to get, likely through diplomatic efforts involving multiple nations.
That's not going to happen. Because let's be honest, the U.S. right now and in two weeks is not going to be playing nice. And I have a feeling a lot of people will not be playing nice back. Diplomatic consequences? Renaming the Gulf to the Gulf of America could be perceived as dismissive of Mexico's sovereignty and shared stake in the region. This might strain U.S.-Mexico relations, which they're pretty strained already, and
potentially create broader diplomatic tensions. We've seen video of the president of Mexico mocking the naming of the Gulf of Mexico change to the Gulf of America, and she actually says, why don't we just name the western U.S. Mexico? because that's what it was. So obviously, people aren't really taking it lightly. Domestic considerations. Even within the US, such a proposal could face opposition from historians, geographers, environmentalists, and others who
value the historical and cultural significance of the current name. The point being, you can't just come up and say, hey, you know what? Let's make America great again. Let's make America first in everything. Let's start renaming international bodies of water from Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. You can't do that. It's not going to be the America Ocean or the Pacific America Ocean. You can't just do that. This is a worldwide decision. It has nothing to do with the US, as
I've read before just off of the documents that I got. And so let's be honest, it's not going to happen. All the stuff that he's saying is not going to happen. He thinks he wants to do it, but he's not. And you kind of wonder why he's going on these tangents. Maybe it's because he can't do the first promise of lowering groceries and securing borders. Who knows? I don't want to comment on the politics, but it just seems like his last term didn't do that. This
term, I don't see anything else happening. However, he does have a lot more control in the government. So who knows what's going to happen? With that said, President Biden has now banned offshore drilling and gas drilling across 65 million acres of federal waters. This action aims to protect sensitive marine ecosystems in the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans, as
well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico. So by implementing this prohibition through an executive order, Biden has made it more challenging for future administrations to reverse the decision. It still can be reversed though, because according to this article on CNN, and I know it's CNN, I know not a lot of people love CNN, but this article was pretty in depth in terms of what it did. Biden used and invoked the
1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. It's a law that gives presidents broad authority to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing and development. This law does not give presidents explicit authority to revoke the action and place federal waters back into development, meaning President-elect Donald Trump would have to get Congress to change it before he could reverse Biden's move. Now he can't, so Donald Trump cannot do it
just on his own. You can't just come back in and use an executive order to say, hey, we're going to take that 650 million acres of water back and we're going to allow it to be explored for drilling. He's not going to do that. But he needs to get Congress to do that. And he has control of Congress. from my understanding,
quite a significant control. So I don't know if he can actually do it in Congress. I don't have full in-depth knowledge of that body of legislation, but I think it'll be interesting to see. What's interesting that I didn't realize is that Trump doesn't like it, obviously, but in his last term in 2020, Trump actually moved to ban offshore drilling while he was
president, between 2016 and 2020. After proposing a major expansion of offshore drilling early in his first term, Trump in 2020 extended a ban on future oil drilling in the Eastern Gulf and expanded it to the Atlantic coast of three states, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Now, I remember at this time it was Republican held states, and I think that's what they wanted. They opened it
up on the West Coast, and he opened up on the Northeast Coast. Those were mostly Democratic states, so I think there was a little bit of push and shove in terms of political changes in there or political differences in there. But the incoming secretary, Carolyn Leavitt, who lambasted the decision at first by Biden, as this is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and
lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will, quote, drill, baby, drill. So obviously, a number of oil executives lashed out. They're not happy. But the interesting part of this article that says there's little economic impact that's gonna happen here. Quote, this is from Tom Klaza, Global Head of Energy Analysis at the Oil Price Information Service. He says, It's not particularly consequential for
U.S. exploration and production going forward. He says, noted that there are plenty of existing offshore rigs pumping oil in the Gulf of Mexico and added that offshore projects typically take six to eight years to even come online. He goes, I don't see it as having a real impact on U.S. supply, exports, and imports. So essentially, U.S. is currently drilling. So this will help in the future, but it's not really going to affect the economy right
now. It's not going to help the economy, and it's not going to, even if they drill, and it's not going to impede the economy right now if they don't drill. It takes six to eight years to get online, to get things pumping, and that's just not going to happen right now. Biden agreed. He says we do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy or between keeping our ocean healthy or coastlines resilient and the food they produce secure and
keeping energy prices low. Those are false choices. Now, as you know, President Biden has increased the the amount or through specific legislation has done a lot to increase the protections of the environment and to do more about the, let's just say, drilling of oil and trying to bring down climate change or reduce climate change, right? It's these actions that he's done, including establishing a
new national monument on January 7th, 2025. President Biden designated the Chukwala, and I'm going to not pronounce this properly, Satitla, Highlands National Monuments in California contribute to the conservation of marine and coastal environments. He also renamed the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument that was renamed to Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to honor traditional voyages and cultural connections in
the region. This initiative reflects the commitment to preserving both natural and cultural marine heritage. He also provided more guidance on January 7th, released a guidance to assist companies in obtaining clean energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This act, if you remember,
is helping to reduce climate change. This program extends subsidies to various low-carbon energy sources, including marine energy, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable ocean energy solutions. So they align with the broader environmental policy goals, including the America the Beautiful initiative, which aims to conserve 30% of the U.S. lands and waters by 2030. So there have been significant changes in policy that the
Biden administration has done over the last week. There's also been some significant claims that the incoming President Donald Trump has made about what he wants the US to do in the future. Both are having a lot of talks. It's been pretty interesting to see how people feel in the US, in Canada, in Denmark, in It's
really interesting how all of these policies kind of come together. But it really, I think a lot of the claims that Donald Trump wants to do or things that he wants to do is not going to turn into anything. It just doesn't look like it can happen because these are not territories of the U.S. These are sovereign nations or part of sovereign nations and it'll be interesting to see how this goes. Some people are saying don't don't listen. He's just saying these words for
attention. Other people are like, well, he is the incoming president and some of these words can be very scary to a lot of people in different countries. Hopefully, these are just jokes and he's just. he's Do you think that will work, or do you think that Congress and Donald Trump will ensure that these lands are made available? It'll definitely be harder for them to drill. Will it be worth it? Do you
think they'll need to drill anyway? Donald Trump has always said, we're going to continue to drill and drill and drill to keep money in the country. That could cause oil spills and so forth, so it can affect the ocean environment. But also, he never really expanded too much while he was president the first time. Actually, I think Biden's approved more more fossil fuel or more oil drilling than any other president. So I think it'll be interesting to see what happens. But I'd love to hear your
thoughts on this. You can DM me on Instagram at HowToProtectTheOcean. Do you think any of the claims made by Donald Trump is going to happen? Do you think that he'll rename the Gulf of Mexico? Do you think he definitely won't annex Canada? So you don't even have to answer that. But do you think the land protected by Biden or the water protected by Biden will stay protected?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I don't have totally in-depth knowledge of the laws and the regulations within the U.S. government, so I'd love to hear from American friends what you think. DM me on Instagram at HowToProtectTheOcean. If you want more information and more news about the ocean and how to protect
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