Jun 2 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jack Torry The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

As the Senate debates a major bill this week designed to curb the emissions of carbon dioxide believed to cause global warming, the man on the spot is Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

Although environmentalists acknowledge that the bill has no chance of congressional passage this year, they are pressing Brown to support the measure.

But Brown is being tugged in the opposite direction by industry and many labor unions warning that the bill would require such huge reductions in carbon dioxide emitted by utilities and industries that Ohio would suffer a major loss in jobs.

"I want to vote for a climate-change bill," Brown said in an interview last week.

But he added that the bill needs to make certain that "homeowners' electrical bills are manageable and Ohio's industries aren't hurt. This bill goes a way toward that, but we've got to do a lot more."

It's that type of talk that has lobbyists convinced that if the bill comes to a final vote, Brown will break with environmentalists and side with Sen. George V. Voinovich. The Republican from Ohio has argued that the measure would devastate the state's industries and lead to massive increases in electricity rates.

"It's probably a difficult vote for him, all things considered," said Frank O'Donnell, president of the Clean Air Watch in Washington. "He probably doesn't want to commit himself and go out on a limb on something that isn't going to go anywhere this year."

Yet those close to Brown insist that he is looking forward to the debate this week. Former Congressman Dennis Eckart, a Cleveland Democrat and friend of Brown's, said "this is exactly why Sherrod ran for the Senate. He loves taking the cause of Ohio to the national stage. He can track the debate on global warming right into a conversation about unfair trade. That's not (being) on the spot; that's the stage where Sherrod Brown performs the best."

Since his arrival in the Senate in 2007, Brown has sent contradictory signals about what measures he would support to reduce greenhouse gases. Last year, he surprised environmentalists by saying "we should look at nuclear power" as a way to reduce carbon dioxide. But last week, he seemed cooler toward nuclear power, saying "it has to absolutely be safe and economically competitive with no safety shortcuts."

The global-warming bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., would require a 70 percent reduction by 2050 in the emissions of carbon dioxide believed to cause global warming.

The bill would impose a cap-and-trade system on virtually all U.S. industries, including power plants, steel mills and oil refineries. A cap-and-trade system would offer a market solution to encourage industries to reduce greenhouse gasses.

Each power plant would have an emission permit from the government for every ton of carbon dioxide it pours into the atmosphere. Plants that stay under those limits could sell their access permits to plants that missed their targets. Companies would have a strong incentive to reduce their emissions so they could sell their permits.

"For them to pass a bill, they've got to satisfy to a large degree House members and senators from industrial states, and they're not there yet," Brown said.

jtorry@dispatch.com