Arizona to California: Who Run Bartertown?

In the wake of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signing a strict anti-illegal immigration bill into law, the Grand Canyon state has faced criticism and a wave of shrill, sanctimonious and largely symbolic boycotts from cities like San Francisco, Austin TX, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego. Hell, some geniuses even got together and decided to boycott Arizona iced tea, despite being headquartered in Long Island.

Like I said, the boycotts are largely petulant foot-stomping from various city councils such as Seattle's. The Emerald City's resolution provided a loophole that permitted Seattle to continue doing business with a Scottsdale, AZ-based company that maintains the city's 29 red light cameras.

And in some cases, Arizona has significant leverage with some of these cities that seek to harm their state economically. San Diego hoteliers began to backpedal from their city council's resolution earlier this week when Arizonans began contacting hotels to cancel reservations.

But even more vulnerable is Los Angeles, which gets an estimated 25% of its electricity from Arizona power plants. An official with Arizona's largest public utility drafted a letter in which he openly pondered cutting off electricity to the City of Angels.

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa,

I was dismayed to learn that the Los Angeles City Council voted to boycott Arizona and Arizona-based companies — a vote you strongly supported — to show opposition to SB 1070 (Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act).

You explained your support of the boycott as follows: “While we recognize that as neighbors, we share resources and ties with the State of Arizona that may be difficult to sever, our goal is not to hurt the local economy of Los Angeles, but to impact the economy of Arizona. Our intent is to use our dollars — or the withholding of our dollars — to send a message.” (emphasis added)

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.

People of goodwill can disagree over the merits of SB 1070. A state-wide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.

Sincerely,

Commissioner Gary Pierce

Huh....if I didn't know any better, I'd say the man was angry at various activists and know-nothing entertainers comparing his state to nazi Germany, inferring that anybody who called for enforcement of existing immigration laws was racist and a concerted effort to economically damage their state (moreso than the illegal immigration that's made Phoenix a hub of kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and human trafficking).

Imagine that.

Personally, I think everybody in Arizona should chip in and buy some ad time on all of LA's TV stations at 8:30 PM. At 8:28, they kill the power for about 90 seconds, and then when the juice comes back on, this would be the first thing that the viewers would see.



I'd also like to add that if Mayor Villaraigosa stood by the courage of his convictions, he should also turn away all those Arizona firefighters that show up as part of mutual aid for the next massive, out of control wildfire in Southern California.

[Hat tip Lonely Conservative: Wyatt Earp]