US Government Rolls Back Environmental Protections for Energy Drilling

0:02 Just when I thought the last episode I did was bad enough where I talked about opening up marine protected areas in the US to fisheries, now we have opening up and rolling back regulations, all regulations, as many as possible, to ensure that energy needs can be met in the US. We're going to talk about why this is such a bad idea and why I'm not surprised again of the rollback of regulations by this administration, but what it can do on this 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 Bowen. And this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.

0:48 I am here out of my office and in sunny Negril, Jamaica on vacation with my family and some friends. I have a lovely time here. It is beautiful. This beach is absolutely amazing. I'll share some pictures as we go through this B roll here as I'm talking. But today we're going to be talking about the rollbacks that have come back, come through on the White House website, where we're talking this rollback of all regulations that have to do with impeding the development of energy needs for the US, including oil drilling and natural gas drilling. This has been a contentious issue for a long time before Donald Trump got in the first time and for a long time.

1:31 There's a reason why a lot of these regulations have been put into place. The Marine Mammal Protection Act and others, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, a lot of these different mags and Stevenson's Act. All these regulations have been put into place to protect the environment because in the past in the 70s, especially when a lot of these were put in, we started to see a decline in fisheries. We started to see in fish stocks, we started to see a decline in marine mammals in general and even like large sharks and so forth. So putting together all those protections brought back the sharks like the great white shark brought back a lot of the fish that would ensure that sea lines were able to be fed and marine mammals were able to be fed. And they could prosper and that's what brought the great white sharks back along the west coast anyway.

2:16 And so when we see regulations like this be rolled back, we forget the past. We forget why they were put in the first place. And now with energy needs being so high, especially with this US administration with their drill baby drill type of motto, they don't care about environment. They just want the least amount of regulations. And this will happen. I've explained the last episode. This is what happens with developers is they want to go fast. They want to move as quickly as possible to satisfy their investors and they want to make as much money as possible. They don't care what gets in their way, especially with the environment. We've seen that with oil companies before. They just don't care. They know that oil spills are a part of their business plan and they are OK with it and they just don't care.

2:58 And it's frustrating as someone who loves the ocean so much, someone who loves the planet so much, anyone of you probably say, hey, you know what, this sucks. This is not fun to see. And it's not fun to see any of this happen, which is why it's so important to vote and to understand who you're voting for and to make sure that you're voting for the right people that are going to protect the environment. Doesn't matter. Each side of the aisle has people that want to protect the ocean, want to protect the environment. They're hunters, they're fishers. They enjoy the environment just like anybody else. Their kids enjoy the environment. But we need to vote for the same people, right, for the people that want to protect the environment and understand that you can develop the economy and you can protect the economy as well as protect the ocean.

3:42 Right. It's really that simple and protect the planet. However, we just seem to divorce the two every single time and it sucks. It sucks to see. But this is what's going to happen essentially now, the way they're doing it. And I'll link to the website where this information can be found. But essentially, you're looking at a way of sun setting these regulations. So not just eliminating the regulations outright, but essentially every five years, they will be these regulations, environmental regulations, especially get in the way of energy will be reviewed by the federal department and which is in charge of this type of regulation. So say the Marine Mail Protection Act will be monitored by, I believe it's NOAA or some division within NOAA on a vacation here. I haven't done all the research. I've just tried to react to this type of news.

4:29 But regardless, they'll roll back every five years. They'll wonder, hey, is this really worth it? Is this going to be in the way of other regulations? Do we allow it to continue for another five years? Do we revisit it in five years? Do we make it stronger or roll back some of those regulations to allow for maybe we'll protect a little bit of the marine mammals that are not in the way of energy needs and which is drilling and so and seismic surveys to for oil exploration or do we just let it go? Do we just not renew it? That's the case every five years for these environmental regulations, which is very difficult. Now, there are some stipulations. I believe the Clean Water and Clean Air Act cannot be just taken away by executive order alone.

5:11 There are some legal frameworks within there. And I'm sure there's some other legal frameworks with other protections. But there is somebody that can be taken out through this executive order. And they will be looking at Endangered Species Act, Max and Stevenson's Act, Marine Mail Protection Act. These all can be rolled back or deregulated. And just based on who's in charge of each department, I wouldn't be surprised to see this happen within the next any amount of years, even next few months, who knows? It doesn't mean that every five years, I think it's a maximum of five years. It sounds like each of these regulations can be visited at any point within those five years. So, you know, be ready, be ready to see some of these regulations go down very quickly.

5:54 Or be reviewed very quickly within the next few months. It seems like this organization is this administration is moving very, very quickly. And guess who's in charge of looking after this doge Department of Government Efficiency, I think is what it's called. But doge is in charge. So they're going to lead with the department in question that has managed the regulation and they're going to decide whether this is going to be in the way and slow down the process of oil exploration and oil drilling. And this is what's going to happen for the next five years. And this is what's going to happen for the next at least four years unless midterms can change some things. But this is what's going to happen. And we need to hear your voice. This is where it counts for all the American citizens that want to change and want to make sure that the environment your ocean is protected and the animals that live within is protected. This is your chance to stand up to a government that wants to deregulate, wants to defund a lot of environmental initiatives. And this is just not cool. We just need to make sure that we stop this.

6:52 I'm not an American citizen, but definitely want this to stop. And I don't want these regulations, the hard work that a lot of people put in to protect the ocean to protect the environment. I don't want to see this happen where it's all this work, all this funding, all this protection of the ocean goes out by the wayside. And we're going to see degradation and rain protected areas have been opened up, like as I mentioned in the last episode. And now we're going to start to see it get worse. Right. We're going to start to see, you know, the Remap Protection Act that maybe disappear. Some of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, rollbacks, a lot of regulations either deregulated or roll back or gutted. It is going to be gutting just to see how this portrays in the future. Short term gain, right? Not looking for long term prosperity.

7:40 And so we'll see what happens, but I'd love to hear what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you think that we should be deregulating every one of these protections and every one of these regulations? Do you think we should get rid of them? Do you think most of them will be sunsetted after a while? They'll just be like, hey, we're done. We want to make sure we can drill. The disappointing part here is the fact that it's going to take a long time to put these acts back. That's where it becomes a real hardship because I've seen it happen before. We had it here in Canada. They gutted the Fisheries Act. They changed it. But now it's for oil and gas needs. It took a long time before the next government can put it back in place. They did make it stronger. They did have a consultant process and a review process, but it took about five or six years to put it back. And that was difficult during that time.

8:27 And so we're going to have a lot of development that probably happened in the amount of fish habitat and the amount of fisheries and just environmental habitat that was degraded during that process was probably ridiculous. We still don't even know the effects yet. And that was 10 years ago. So this is a warning from Canada saying, hey, this could be really bad in the future. We can lose a lot of animals. We can lose a lot of endangered species during this time when we deregulate. There's a reason why these regulations are in there for the first place in the first place and to deregulate them is not good. So anyway, we're going to be doing a lot of things. That's it for me. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Let me know in the comments below. Or if you are listening to this on just audio, let me know how you feel. Hit me up on DMS on Instagram at how to protect the ocean. That's at how to protect the ocean. Or you can email me by just going to speakupforblue.com for slash contact.

9:16 Go to the contact us page and just fill out the form. It goes right to my email. Love to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of how to protect the ocean podcast from the world. Jamaica. I'm your host, Andrew. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.