Republican Governor Jan Brewer has pulled Arizona out of the Western Climate Initiative.

The Western Climate Initiative is made up of seven Western states — Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington — and four Canadian provinces. Its modest goal is to achieve a 15% reduction from 2005 emissions levels by 2020. The regional cap-and-trade program was to begin in 2012, but California is the only state on schedule.

The New York Times quotes Benjamin Grumbles, the head of the state’s environmental agency:

Green and grow is our approach now.

Fearful that cutting emissions plan will slow the state’s economic recovery, Arizona will focus less on regulations and instead support initiatives to expand the use of solar power, nuclear power and other renewable energy sources. Arizona will look at “growth policies that limit pollution” and “steps to adapt to the changing climate.”

Arizona is also reconsidering the stricter vehicle-emissions rules set to take effect in 2012.

A glimpse at conditions to which Arizona is going to have to adopt to is found in the U.S. Global Change Research Program report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States (2009):

Recent warming in the Southwest has been among the most rapid in the nation. This is driving declines in spring snowpack and Colorado River flow. Projections of future climate change indicate continued strong warming in the region, with much larger increases under higher emissions scenarios compared to lower. Projected summertime temperature increases are greater than the annual average increases in parts of the region and are likely to be exacerbated by expanding urban heat island effects. Further water cycle changes are projected, which, combined with increasing temperatures, signal a serious water supply challenge in the decades and centuries ahead. The prospect of future droughts becoming more severe due to warming is a significant concern, especially because the Southwest continues to lead the nation in population growth.

The report identifies several key issues for the Southwest as climate rapidly changes:

• Water supplies will become increasingly scarce, calling for tradeoffs among competing uses, and potentially leading to conflict.
• Increasing temperature, drought, wildfire, and invasive species will accelerate transformation of the landscape.
• Increased frequency and altered timing of flooding will increase risks to people, ecosystems, and infrastructure.
• Unique tourism and recreation opportunities are likely to suffer.
• Cities and agriculture face increasing risks from a changing climate.

“Green and grow.” Sigh.