Earlier this week, I posted a column about an editorial in The Sacramento Bee, which pressed all the presidential candidates to say whether or not they support a federal waiver to allow California to determine its own automobile fuel-efficiency standards. Spinning off from that, I argued that global warming hasn’t become a “front-burner” issue during the presidential primaries because all the Democratic candidates see pretty much eye-to-eye on how to address it. Among other things (like a cap-and-trade system and renewable fuels investments) all support the waiver, which the Environmental Protection Agency recently denied. I also wrote that on the GOP side, John McCain was the only one likely to back overturning the EPA decision. I stand corrected. All vouched their support at the Republican debate Wednesday night (although Mitt Romney had some reservations). The San Francisco Chronicle’s David Perlman reported that today in what seems to be the only newspaper article to focus exclusively on that element of the debate (cheers to the Chron). That said, the Detroit Free-Press reports today that Romney has now backed even farther away from the comments he made Wednesday night.

Curtis Brainard is the editor of The Observatory, CJR's online critique of science and environment reporting. Follow him on Twitter @cbrainard.