Arizona Utility Commissioner HANDS L.A. MAYOR VILLARAIOGSA HIS ASS in this POLITICO.com Article (STOP DAMAGING L.A.'s REPUTATION, VILLARAIOGSA!)

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce is threatening to encourage the state’s utilities to cut off energy delivery to Los Angeles if the city does not back down from its boycott over the state’s new immigration law.

“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,” Pierce, a Republican, wrote Tuesday to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat.

“I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands,” he continued. “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.”

Pierce is one of five members of the statewide elected commission that regulates utilities in the state.

Arizona sells a significant amount of power and water to Los Angeles, a fact Villaraigosa cited in his original letter to Arizona lawmakers reprimanding them over the controversial immigration law.

In his letter, Pierce wrote that “as a statewide 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 25 percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.”

“People of goodwill can disagree over the merits” of the law, the commissioner wrote. “A statewide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.”

Villaraigosa was in Washington on Wednesday to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and President Barack Obama.

Villaraigosa has not responded directly to Pierce’s letter, but a spokesman for the mayor said in a statement that he “stands strongly behind the City Council and he will not respond to threats from the state that has isolated itself from an America that values freedom, liberty and basic civil rights.”

original link: http://ow.ly/1NwLI