Restoration of Names That Honor American Greatness; Gulf of America

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement</SUBAGY> <CFR>30 CFR Parts 203, 250, and 254</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket ID: BSEE-2025-0005; EEEE500000 245E1700D2 ET1SF0000.EAQ000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1014-AA65</RIN> <SUBJECT>Restoration of Names That Honor American Greatness; Gulf of America</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This final rule will, throughout the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's regulations, rename the area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) as the Gulf of America (GOA). The Gulf of America is the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective on September 15, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Kirk Malstrom, Chief, Regulations and Standards Branch, (202) 258-1518, or by email: <E T="03">regs@bsee.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background and Legal Authority</HD> On January 20, 2025, the President signed Executive Order (E.O.) 14172, Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness. This E.O. directs the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to take all appropriate actions to rename as the “Gulf of America” the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico. BSEE is removing all references to the Gulf of Mexico from its regulations. BSEE is updating all its references in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to the Gulf of America or (GOA), consistent with 43 U.S.C. 364 through 364f. (a). BSEE is promulgating this final rule to implement the directive of E.O. 14172 and for good cause finds that a proposed rule is unnecessary pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). Public notice and comment is unnecessary because this rule makes minor technical amendments to conform the language of the regulations with the directive of E.O. 14172. Updating the name for the Gulf of America region imposes no substantive changes and does not impact the public's rights or obligations. Accordingly, this final rule is exempt from public notice and comment rulemaking requirements under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). The area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico has long been an integral asset to our once burgeoning Nation and has remained an indelible part of America. The Gulf was a crucial artery for America's early trade and global commerce. It is the largest gulf in the world, and the United States coastline along this remarkable body of water spans over 1,700 miles and contains nearly 160 million acres. Its natural resources and wildlife remain central to America's economy today. The bountiful geology of this basin has made it one of the most prodigious oil and gas regions in the world, providing roughly 14 percent of our Nation's crude-oil production and an abundance of natural gas, and consistently driving new and innovative technologies that have allowed us to tap into some of the deepest and richest oil reservoirs in the world. The Gulf is also home to vibrant American fisheries teeming with snapper, shrimp, grouper, stone crab, and other species, and it is recognized as one of the most productive fisheries in the world, with the second largest volume of commercial fishing landings by region in the Nation, contributing millions of dollars to local American economies. The Gulf is also a favorite destination for American tourism and recreation activities. Further, the Gulf is a vital region for the multi-billion-dollar U.S. maritime industry, providing some of the largest and most impressive ports in the world. The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America's future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation's economy and its people. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Procedural Requirements</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regulatory Planning and Review (E.O. 12866 and 13563)</HD> E.O. 12866 provides that the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) will review all significant rules. OIRA has determined that this rule is not significant. E.O. 13563 reaffirms the principles of E.O. 12866 while calling for improvements in the Nation's regulatory system to promote predictability, to reduce uncertainty, and to use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends. E.O. 13563 directs agencies to consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public where these approaches are relevant, feasible, and consistent with regulatory objectives. E.O. 13563 further emphasizes that regulations must be based on the best available science and that the rulemaking process must allow for public participation and an open exchange of ideas. We have developed this rule in a manner consistent with these requirements, to the extent permitted by statute. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Regulatory Flexibility Act</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) requires an agency to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis for rules unless the agency certifies that the rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The RFA applies only to rules for which an agency is required to first publish a proposed rule. ( <E T="03">See</E> 5 U.S.C. 603(a) and 604(a)). This rule is exempt from the requirement to publish a proposed rule for notice and comment pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). Thus, the RFA does not apply to this rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act</HD> This rule is not a major rule under 5 U.S.C. 804(2), the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. This rule: (1) Does not have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; (2) Will not cause a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, Federal, State, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; and (3) Does not have significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or the ability of U.S.-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</HD> This rule does not impose an unfunded mandate on State, local, or Tribal governments, or the private sector of more than $100 million per year. The rule does not have a significant or unique effect on State, local, or Tribal governments or the private sector. Therefore, a statement containing the information required by the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (2 U.S.C. 1531 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) is not required. <HD SOURCE="HD2">E. Takings (E.O. 12630)</HD> This rule does not effect a taking of private property or otherwise have takings implications under E.O. 12630. Therefore, a takings implication assessment is not required. <HD SOURCE="HD2">F. Federalism (E.O. 13132)</HD> Under the criteria in section 1 of E.O. 13132, this rule does not have sufficient federalism implications to warrant the preparation of a federalism summary impact statement. To the extent that State and local governments have a role in Outer Continental Shelf activities, this rule will not affect that role. Therefore, a federalism summary impact statement is not required. <HD SOURCE="HD2">G. Civil Justice Reform (E.O. 12988)</HD> This rule complies with the requirements of E.O. 12988. Specifically, this rule: (1) Meets the criteria of section 3(a) requiring that all regulations be reviewed to eliminate errors and ambiguity and be written to minimize litigation; and (2) Meets the criteria of section 3(b)(2) requiring that all regulations be written in clear language and contain clear legal standards. <HD SOURCE="HD2">H. Consultation With Indian Tribes (E.O. 13175 and Departmental Policy)</HD> The Department of the Interior strives to strengthen its government-to-government relationship with Indian Tribes through a commitment to consultation and recognition of their right to self-governance and Tribal sovereignty. We have evaluated this rule under the Department of the Interior's consultation policy, Departmental Manual Part 512 Chapters 4 and 5, and under the criteria in E.O. 13175. We have determined that this final rule has no substantial direct effects on federally recognized Indian Tribes or Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) Corporations, and that consultation under the Department of the Interior's Tribal and ANCSA consultation policies is not required. <HD SOURCE="HD2">I. Paperwork Reduction Act</HD> This rule does not contain information collection requirements, and a submission to the OMB under the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) is not required. <HD SOURCE="HD2">J. National Environmental Policy Act</HD> This rule does not constitute a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. A detailed statement under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is not required because, as a regulation of an administrative nature, this rule is covered by a categorical exclusion ( <E T="03">see</E> 43 CFR 46.210(i)). BSEE also determined that the rule does not implicate any of the extraordinary circumstances listed in 43 CFR 46.215 that would require further analysis under NEPA. Therefore, a detailed statement under NEPA is not required. <HD SOURCE="HD2">K. Effects ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 39k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━