Arizona is ending its participation with the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), a western cap-and-trade program, due to financial fears, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer announced on Feb. 11.The completely voluntary WCI currently has six states and four Canadian provinces, not including Arizona. The program is set to begin in 2012 on a limited scale, according to The New York Times.

Arizona, one of the founding members, fears the program would cripple their state economically. Arizona officials, according to ClimateBiz.com, consider the cap-and-trade program currently in development too complex given the current economic crisis.

“First, while folks say we’re pulling out of the cap-and-trade program, the truth is we’re staying engaged in the discussions with our colleagues and, if asked, offering our technical expertise on the details,” Benjamin Grumbles, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, told The Guilfordian in an e-mail interview.

“The legal and political reality,” Grumbles added, “is that cap and trade doesn’t have the support to be implemented in Arizona anytime in the near future, particularly in this economic downturn.”

Cap and trade is a program designed to set a ceiling for the amount of allowable greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). People or businesses could buy credits – worth a certain amount of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) or other greenhouse gasses – allowing them to pollute that amount. People could also sell their credits.

“The idea is to basically make it expensive to pollute at each step up to that (cap),” said Associate Professor of Political Science Kyle Dell. “Right now, there’s an overall limit and there’s no cost to whoever pollutes up to that limit, it’s all free. So what we’re trying to say now with cap and trade is that there would be a cost for each one of those steps up to the limit.”

According to The New Republic, some fear that other WCI states will also abandon the program now that Arizona has.

“Arizona pulling out is not surprising, in some ways, because it’s a voluntary thing that these states are doing,” said Dell. “To my mind it’s kind of unfortunate because it could be the case that you can build a newer greener economy around a program like this and forcing businesses to innovate and figure out new ways to do things.”

Rather than implementing the cap-and-trade system in an effort to reduce their pollution, Arizona plans to focus on other methods. Solar and nuclear energy, according to The New York Times, are being considered as strong alternatives.

“I like that they’re not just giving up and are going to continue to look into solar, wind, and geothermal options, but it’s really unfortunate that they’re backing out of this particular cap-and-trade opportunity,” said Ben Ardel, a sophomore environmental studies major.

Arizona’s goal, Grumbles explained, is to be a national leader in solar opportunities. In order to accomplish that goal, he said the state needs financial support as well as regulatory reviews.

“The future looks bright for solar, as well as wind, geothermal, algae bio-fuels, and other clean, green, and renewable energy sources in Arizona,” Grumbles said.

To learn more about Arizona’s environmental initiatives, visit Benjamin Grumbles’ blog at www.azdeq.gov.