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Pennsylvania Lawmaker Seeks to Rename Lake Erie to 'Lake Pennsylvania
Developing
In Short: Pennsylvania state Rep. David Maloney is asking President Donald Trump to rename Lake Erie to 'Lake Pennsylvania' in a bid to reflect the lake's modern identity, following similar renaming efforts by the president.
Pennsylvania state Rep. David Maloney, a Republican, is preparing a resolution calling on President Donald Trump to rename Lake Erie to 'Lake Pennsylvania,' arguing that the change is needed to reflect the lake's modern identity and its increasing economic and recreational ties to the state.
According to reports, Maloney stated, 'This is Pennsylvania’s only Great Lake. Its modern economy and identity are increasingly tied to the boaters, anglers, families and tourists who come to enjoy it.
The push comes after Trump signed an executive order last month to rename Lake Ontario to 'Lake America,' a move that Canada has firmly rejected.
Background
Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest average water residence time.
What's still developing
- Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., is pushing legislation to rename "Lake America" permanently, after President Donald Trump changed Lake Ontario's name amid a trade war with Canada.
- Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume as well as the shallowest, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
- "We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement.
- On his first day back in office in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," but, similar to the Lake Ontario rebranding, the order only applies to the U.S. federal government and does not bind Mexico, other international bodies or private entities.
- The lake has about 12 million people in its watershed, with 10.5 million people in the U.S.
- The president has also suggested renaming New Mexico to "New America," prompting several of the state’s Democratic lawmakers to call on Apple and Google to publicly commit to keeping the state's current name on their respective maps applications.
- Trump has also floated the idea of renaming the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.