Arizona utilities board commissioner responds to boycott!

Arizona utilities board commissioner responds to the Los Angeles City Council boycott
Posted: 18 May 2010 03:55 PM PDT
When a California municipality is dependent on a neighboring state to provide its citizens a good chunk of its electricity, it’s best for that municipality to not piss off that neighboring state. Case in point: Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott the State of Arizona because of its new immigration law. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fully supported that boycott. However, Los Angeles gets 25% of it energy from Arizona utility companies, something Mayor Villaraigosa seems to have forgotten. Gary Pierce, one of Arizona’s elected utilities commissioners, was more than happy to remind the mayor of that fact in a letter he sent him and copied to Hot Air. Here’s only a portion:

I received your message; please receive mine. As a state-wide elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission overseeing Arizona’s electric and water utilities, I too am keenly aware of the “resources and ties” we share with the City of Los Angeles. In fact, approximately twenty-five percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.

If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation. I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands. If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.

Nice job, Mr. Pierce.

I have a feeling the citizens of Los Angeles won’t be quite as committed to the cause of punishing Arizona as the mayor and city council are, especially since it will be the citizens who will be living with the blackouts, and just as the heat of summer is ramping up. If Mr. Villaraigosa had considered the consequences of trashing the hand that feeds his city’s air conditioners and lights before publicly supporting the boycott of Arizona (especially since Arizona’s new law reads very similarly to California’s), he wouldn’t be in the awkward position of trying to find a way to extricate himself and his city from this difficult situation.