It is not very often that I find myself praising George W. Bush. In fact, I cannot recall the last time. However I must give credit where credit is due, and Bush’s decision to designate a 140,000 square-mile area of ocean real estate, including a large portion of the Northwest Hawaiian Island chain, a protected marine reserve should be unequivocally lauded.

The region, encompassing a 1200 mile stretch of the Sandwich Islands extending northwest from Kauai to include the Midway and Kure atolls, is remote and unpopulated, but harbors a vast variety of marine life and endangered species. The region was already slated to be named a national marine sanctuary, but this form of protection could take more than a year to enact and may be challenged in court. Bush’s decision to exercise his powers under the National Antiquities Act to immediately protect this marine habitat effectively sidesteps the possibility of protracted public debate, legal battles, and weakened regulations. Bush’s decision also completes the work begun by Bill Clinton in the late nineties, protecting specific marine resources in the area and ordering federal agencies to prepare for the upcoming marine sanctuary designation.

It may be argued that the federal protection of this marine habitat was inevitable and faced little resistance; and that President Bush, seeking to gain political points for an uncharacteristically environmentalist position, decided to finish rather than block the initiative. As the evidence for global warming mounts and is embraced by more and more politicians in Congress – and within the Bush Administration – this move, at least in part, signifies recognition of the potentially large role that the environment may play during the upcoming election. It certainly will help the reelection prospects of Hawaii’s first ever Republican governor, Linda Lingle, a strong supporter of the Northwest Hawaiian Island sanctuary.

Whether the motive for Bush’s environmental preemption is political expediency or not, it is difficult to find fault with the final action. One can hope that similar preemption applied to broader environmental protections and a “Manhattan Project” for clean economic renewable energy production, and not warfare, is forthcoming. One can only hope.