SALEM — Oregon lawmakers opened their short session Monday with Democrats urging compromise and collaboration on a contentious climate change bill and Republicans warning against government overreach.

“I truly believe there is more that unites us than divides us,” House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner, D-Portland, said in a floor speech. “In the days and weeks ahead, I hope that we have spirited debates, I hope we search for common ground and where our policy views diverge, I hope that we always assume best intentions from each other.”

Rep. Carl Wilson, a Grants Pass Republican, suggested that would be all but impossible.

“Cap-and-trade, we all know in our heart of hearts there’s no room for compromise on that,” Wilson said during a House floor speech. “We’ve got to quit poking the bear. And if you want to know again what poking the bear looks like, just hang around here later this week.”

Wilson was referring to a rally planned for Thursday morning by a rural advocacy group formed in opposition to the 2019 version of Democrats’ climate bill. Timber Unity brought protesters and a parade of log trucks to Salem last year in support of Senate Republicans who fled the state to shut down Senate business and stop the cap-and-trade bill.

“I’ll tell you what, they are very representative of most of Oregon’s land mass,” Wilson said.

Beat Check podcast Reporters Hillary Borrud and Ted Sickinger preview the legislative session. Subscribe to Beat Check with The Oregonian wherever you listen to podcasts.

Smith Warner pointed out that each House lawmaker represents “roughly the same number of Oregonians” and “we all represent people whose views span the political spectrum and are very different than our own.”

But that appears unlikely to sway Republicans such as Wilson, who suggested the only way for Democrats to avoid another shutdown — possibly in the House this time — is by referring the carbon cap-and-trade bill to voters. Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. of Grants Pass has taken the same position, which could mean Democrats’ attempts to compromise might be for naught.

Under both last year and this year’s cap-and-trade proposals, Oregon would limit greenhouse gas emissions and require most large polluters to buy increasingly limited “allowances” to emit carbon. One of the goals is to incentivize polluters, including gas and diesel sellers and manufacturers, to seek greener options.

Democrats have said that referring the plan to voters would make it impossible to begin implementing it in 2021 as they plan.

Senate Democrats need to lock down enough support for the climate bill in their own party, and it remained unclear Monday whether they have yet achieved that. Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, was one of three members of the caucus whose opposition last year doomed the bill. Sen. Arnie Roblan of Coos Bay is now onboard but with Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose still likely opposed, supporters appear to have tweaked the bill to appeal to Monnes Anderson.

On Monday, Monnes Anderson declined to tell reporters whether she supported the Senate’s cap-and-trade bill as it was introduced. Architects of the bill expected new amendments to be made public later Monday or Tuesday, and Monnes Anderson said she was waiting to read them.

“I’m excited about the changes that I have been made aware of,” Monnes Anderson said.

Sen. Michael Dembrow, a Portland Democrat, said that under the newest proposed amendments, Democrats would set carbon fees on gas and diesel purely by region, rather than by quantities of fuel sold. “It’s more county-based, more similar to what we did with the minimum wage,” Dembrow said.

Democrats are trying to respond to criticism that fuel fees would be costlier, and alternative transportation more difficult to come by, in rural areas of the state. Under the current Senate proposal, gas and diesel fees might never apply in much of rural Oregon.

Hearings in the carbon bill are scheduled to begin Tuesday and continue through Saturday, which Dembrow said is intended to allow an opportunity for people who work Monday through Friday to come testify on the bill.

Rhetoric was less heated Monday in the Senate, where Senate President Peter Courtney’s surprise return appeared to temporarily supplant potential speeches or posturing over the climate bill. The Salem lawmaker had been in the hospital for nearly a month fighting an infection in his replacement hip and conceded last week he might not make it back for the opening day of the session.

Courtney made a point of congratulating and welcoming new Republican Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, who was recently appointed to fill the seat of former Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, who stepped down to run to replace Greg Walden in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“You do an extraordinary job working on behalf of your people and that means all of Oregon,” Courtney said. “So I really look forward to working with you.”