Without a border tariff against countries that don't cap their greenhouse gas emissions, U.S. climate change legislation can be only so successful, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said today.

Speaking with NationalJournal.com after addressing a manufacturing conference hosted by the left-leaning Institute for America's Future and the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Brown dismissed criticism that a tariff provision would ignite a trade war. "I don't want a tariff just to have a tariff," Brown maintained. "I want it there as a lever -- a hammer, if you will -- to get countries around the world to do the right thing on climate change."

Experts say Brown, a progressive hailing from an industrial Midwest state, is pivotal in the debate, despite the fact that he's not on any committees likely to take up the Kerry-Boxer bill. (He is on the Senate Agriculture Committee but said it's probably not going to mark up the bill.) He said his office is working with Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., to add "border equalization" language to the bill. Right now, the bill has placeholder language for a border provision.

Brown wants the Senate to improve on the border tax provision included in Waxman-Markey. "It gives too much discretion to the administration," he said. "It needs to go into effect immediately when countries are not enforcing or don't have" a carbon-capping regime.

"It's a good start but it's not quite there yet," Brown added.

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