PHOENIX  — A House panel took aim Tuesday at what some lawmakers said was the myth of global warming.

But they ended up adopting what even its sponsor conceded may be only a symbolic move.

On a 32 margin members of the House Environment Committee voted to bar the state Department of Environmental Quality from participating in the Western Climate Initiative. That organization of seven states and four Canadian provinces is adopting standards that participating states must meet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Janet Napolitano put Arizona into the organization in 2007 when she was governor, sending her DEQ chief to be the main delegate, a move that occurred without legislative approval.

HB 2467 specifically prohibits the agency or its chief from being involved.

Rep. Andy Biggs, RGilbert, said his main concern is that WCI members are crafting a capandtrade system that will require industries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases. One big source are the coal and gasfired electric power plants.

Biggs said it makes no sense for Arizona to cooperate in such a venture.

"I'd rather they stand up to this steamrolling tank which is running over Arizona,'' he said. "There comes a time when you have to stand up and say 'no.' ''

And Biggs said there is no consensus that the earth is warming, certainly not from humancaused pollution.

"It is an open debate,'' he said. "It has nothing to do with the Western Climate Initiative other than to cede and surrender to specious pseudoscientific claims.''

But Biggs admitted that, even if his measure becomes law, it actually won't withdraw Arizona from the WCI.

It does not bar Jan Brewer, Napolitano's successor, from continuing to participate. And if the new governor herself does not want to attend, it does not preclude her from sending any department head or state employee  as long as that person does not work for DEQ.

"We have symbolically expressed our disapproval with the entire WCI process,'' he said, saying that interested parties, like the utilities which might have to raise rates, cannot participate.

Potentially more significant, the limited scope of the wording preserves the chance that Brewer might actually sign the bill as it does not tie her hands. Aides to the governor said Brewer will not make a decision whether to withdraw from WCI until she sees what the group ultimately proposes and whether she wants Arizona to be a part of that.

Biggs said, though, this may not be the final version of the bill.

He noted that the Legislature approved a measure last year to bar DEQ from imposing or enforcing any regulations dealing with greenhouse gases unless the agency first gets legislative approval. That would have undone both new vehicle emission rules as well as precluded those capandtrade regulations still being developed.

Napolitano vetoed that bill. But Sen. Sylvia Allen, RSnowflake, has resurrected the measure this year and Biggs said he might make the provisions part of his bill.