DaytonDailyNews.com

President Barack Obama has adopted a version of "cap and trade" that should worry Ohioans.

"Cap and trade" is the phrase Washington uses for a system for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and, thereby, combating global warming. The idea is to set a national limit on emissions, and to achieve it by allowing companies that can't get their emissions down enough to buy credits from other companies that aren't "spending" their allotted amount.

The general idea has been widely embraced in Washington as more appealing politically than, say, a tax on emissions. In the 2008 campaign, both Sens. Obama and John McCain embraced the idea. But a specific proposal has never passed Congress.

There are various approaches. The president proposes that all allowances be auctioned off, with the government getting the money. The auction would put the biggest burden on states like Ohio, which gets 84 percent of its electricity from coal. Coal utilities are big producers of carbon dioxide emissions. Their costs would go up, and those costs would be passed on to other businesses and to consumers.

The president says that allowing the government to get the money would allow the government to give it — via tax breaks — to those regions most burdened.

But the outlines of this proposal are just emerging.

If you're representing Ohioans, you have to be skeptical. Accordingly, the administration does not have the support of Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, much less Republican George Voinovich.

Sen. Voinovich has been hostile to the whole "cap and trade" idea, at least for now. He proposed enacting it in 2030 if other alternatives he proposes prove faulty.

But Sen. Brown has said he and others are still trying to work out something with the administration. More than a dozen other Democratic senators are also skeptical of the administration's plan.

Proponents of the auction system say that Europe has adopted a "cap and trade" approach without an auction, and it doesn't work.

Nevertheless, the administration needs to hear the skeptics. Sen. Brown has been popular with environmentalists. (He has supported higher gas mileage standards for American cars, despite the unpopularity of those standards with important companies in Ohio.)

Sen. Voinovich does not deny the need for cutting carbon emissions, and he does not deny man-made global warning.

True, he is seen as sympathetic to businesses and utilities, just as Sen. Brown is seen as an organized-labor guy. But that covers a lot of Ohio ground.

Another voice worth hearing is Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy Corp., the utility for parts of Butler and Warren counties. He supported President Obama in the election. He's part of a group of utilities and environmental groups that support a version of "cap and trade." But he says the Obama approach could send Duke bills up 25 percent or more.

He says allowances should be given free to utilities that have already invested billions in pursuit of clean coal, as Duke has. He says that was the approach used in the federal government's successful fight against "acid rain."

Advocates of a tough law argue that, even if it might have some short-term economic downsides for Ohio, it would also do some economic good: sparking businesses that deal in cleaner, cheaper energy. That's certainly true, but it's not much comfort if the downsides are overwhelming.

"Cap and trade" has a lot to be said for it. It gives businesses options in responding to a governmental goal. It sets a specific national goal, rather than something as vague as "reduction." It addresses a real problem, and, done right, it does that as gently as possible. But it has to be done right.