Some legislators want to see a cap and invest program for carbon passed in the 2019 session. The Legislature’s Joint Interim Committee on Carbon Reduction is getting ready for that debate with a meeting next week.

As much as it was a relief that legislators didn’t try to force through this complicated bill in the short session, the problems and challenges with the idea are still there.

The cap and invest concept is that the state would cap allowable carbon emissions. The state would require large polluters who exceed the cap to purchase permission to emit more. Proceeds would be invested to pay for a variety of anti-pollution programs and to mitigate the impacts. Advocates argue California has managed to do it without destroying that state’s economy and Oregon should do it, too.

But there’s no question that an Oregon bill will almost certainly raise prices and do things nobody ever expected. That raises many questions.

How does Oregon guarantee that low-income families won’t be hit harder when energy prices go up? One solution would be to raise the utility costs for other customers to subsidize utility costs for low-income families. Is that going to make people happy?

How do legislators assure Oregonians that state government can invest the hundreds of millions involved without messing it up? State government does many routine things well. But it is also capable of spectacular blunders. Will it get it right?

Then there’s something called carbon leakage. Some businesses in Oregon that use lots of energy and are exposed to strong competition from other states and in other countries. If Oregon implements tougher regulations for carbon, will those businesses be big losers? Some businesses might just pick up and move where the regulations are lower. The net effect could be an increase in global emissions. Who wants that? How does Oregon prevent it?

Legislators have worked on a plan to pick some industries and hand out free allowances to those businesses to keep them competitive. How well will that work?

Unless there are sweeping changes in the November election, a cap and invest bill is going to be at the top of the 2019 Legislature’s agenda. It wasn’t ready in 2018. And the problems and challenges such a bill creates, don’t just go away.