PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano is pushing ahead with plans to impose new greenhouse gas restrictions on some Arizona businesses without first asking for approval from lawmakers or state utility regulators.

 Lori Faeth, the governor’s chief environmental adviser, said th recommendations of the Western Climate Initiative simply provide a draft for how to design and impose a “cap and trade’’ system of limits on carbon dioxide and other gases that are believed to be linked to global climate change.

 Faeth said the actual language that will go to Napolitano and the governors of six other Western states and four Canadian provinces will not be ready until September. And it will not be until then,

 Faeth said, that Napolitano will begin exploring how to make it happen.

 Faeth said it is premature for Napolitano to decide whether she needs permission from lawmakers.

 But the governor has a bit of a track record on this issue: She imposed new carbon dioxide emission standards for cars and trucks earlier this year by rule. And she vetoed legislation which would have required her to get such approval, not just for vehicle emission standards but the cap and trade system this proposa would implement.

 Going around the Legislature could provoke a lawsuit.

 Bill Mundell, a long-time member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, said Napolitano definitely cannot impose emission limits on power plants on her own.

 “We have to decide how to pay for it,’’ Mundell said. He said estimates already presented to the commission suggest that imposing a cap-and-trade system could raise the cost o electricity by anywhere from $50 to $80 a month from coal-fired plants — major emitters of carbon dixoide — which provide much of the power to Arizona customers.

 “Under the state constitution the commission is considered a fourth branch of government,’’ he said. “Any proposal she make needs the approval of the commission.

 That may be only part of the legal dispute. Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said both lawmakers and utility regulators should b involved.

 “If this is just something that happens through executive action— and if it happens through executive action without meaningful stakeholder involvement — I’m sure that it would be challenged in all appropriate ways,’’ Hamer said.

But he stopped short of

 saying that his organization would be filing the suit.

 The essence of a “cap and trade’’ system starts with an inventory

 of how much greenhouse gas each source is emitting. At this point

 the plan is to use 2012 as a base year.

 There then will be a schedule of how much that needs to be cut

 and how fast.

 Companies that are unable to meet those reductions would be

 entitled to purchase pollution credits from other firms who cut

 emissions more than the target.

 Members of the Western Climate Initiative last year agreed to a

 regional goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 15 percent below

 2005 levels by 2020. How much would be required by each state is

 yet to be determined.

 And Napolitano separately said she wants to cut greenhouse gas

 emissions in Arizona to 2000 levels by 2020, and by half that by

 2040.

 Legal issues aside, Hamer said having Arizona and a handful of

 other states act on their own to reduce greenhouse gases makes

 bad economic sense. He said higher costs to business, both

 directly and in utilities, will only speed the transfer of jobs

 to other states without similar caps.

 But Hamer’s organization would not be satisfied with even a

 nationwide program. He said developing countries like China and

 India should be required to impose meaningful reductions on their

 own carbon dioxide emissions to avoid “massive transfer of

 wealth’’ to other countries with laxer air quality regulations

 than already exist in Arizona and the United States.

 Napolitano last year directed her Department of Environmental

 Quality to enact greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and

 trucks sold in Arizona.

 The Legislature responded by passing a bill requiring their

 approval for any such standards. That would not only have

 sidelined the vehicle standards but forced the governor to get

 the blessing of lawmakers for the cap and trade system. But

 Napolitano vetoed the measure, calling it “micromanagement.’’

 Sen. Jake Flake, R-Snowflake, died before following through with

 his threat to attach the provision to other environmental

 legislation the governor wanted.

 While the rules on vehicle emissions were subsequently adopted,

 they cannot take effect unless and until a federal court rules on

 a challenge by California to the refusal of the U.S.

 Environmental Protection Agency to let states adopt stricter

 standards than federal limits, of which there are none. Arizona’s

 regulations are a virtual carbon copy of the California rules.