Well, they asked one of the questions EnviroWonk had hoped to hear at this evening's Republican debate. Or should I say, they asked one question. But before delving into what the GOPers think about California's emissions proposal, let us first applaud Mike Huckabee for what has to be the most honest answer of the debate season to date.

Some quick background: When asked about the economy at last week's Florida debate, Huckabee suggested that the country would be better off using the estimated $150 billion in rebate checks to add two lanes of highway onto I-95. "I'd like to suggest that maybe we add two lanes of highway from Bangor all the way to Miami on I-95," he said. “This nation's infrastructure is falling apart and if we built those lanes of highways with American labor, American steel, American concrete, I believe it would do more to stimulate the economy."

Tonight, Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times asked Huckabee to expand on this "More Roads, More Cars" solution. He once again defended the infrastructure project, and then added this nugget: "Now, my point is, and it's not necessarily just I-95 from Bangor to Miami, I said that when I was in Florida. Today we might look at a western highway that would go down the California coast."

Now that is some A-plus unapologetic pandering.

But back to the enviro question, where Hook asked McCain if California should be allowed to implement much tougher regulations on emission requirements than apply to the rest of the country. McCain gave a 467-word answer, twice as long as the entire environment and energy section of President Bush's State of the Union on Monday. In it, the Arizona senator said he is a federalist and believes the states should decide to enormous degrees what happens within their borders.

"I applaud the governor's efforts and that of other states in this region and other states across America to try to eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change," said McCain, who then proceeded to jump into some very familiar rhetoric about technologies, nuclear power and American innovation.

Romney, Paul and Huckabee all essentially agreed with McCain about California's emissions standards, some more begrudgingly than others. It obviously pained Romney more than anyone, but he was back on message later in his answer, when twice in 30 seconds he said GHG's are "probably bad for the environment."

Sounds like the Republicans should probably talk about that issue some more at the next debate.