Arizona to LA: Let’s Renegotiate (Updated)
[Guest post by DRJ]
Following up on the LA City Council’s call for a boycott of Arizona, an Arizona Republican suggests the LA officials back up their words by renegotiating their agreements with Arizona companies that provide water and electricity to LA:
“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.”
I doubt LA will take him up on the renegotiation, proving that talk is cheap on both sides. But Arizona has done more than just talk about how to solve its problems. Arizona’s leaders acted so it’s not really a surprise that someone in Arizona is willing to call LA’s bluff.
— DRJ
UPDATE — LA Mayor Villaraigosa responds:
” In a letter exclusively provided to Hot Air, Pierce questioned how a city-wide boycott of Arizona would work while LA continues to light the city with Arizona electrons. In response, Villaraigosa bravely … ducked the question entirely:
Mayor Villaraigosa is in Washington D.C., meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, but his deputy chief of staff issued the following statement: “The mayor 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.”
But Pierce wasn’t threatening anything. The ACC doesn’t have the authority to cut Los Angeles off from Arizona power, although it has enough influence with utilities in the state to have them rethinking their sales policy.”
What is interesting is the Andrew Malcolm column in the LA Times. Every comment was in support of Arizona.
I would like to see where the support for this boycott of Arizona is coming from. Are there that many open-border advocates in CA supporting the politicians that they want to cut off their nose to spite their face?
MU789 (7db53f) — 5/19/2010 @ 3:48 pmIf illegal aliens had boycotted Arizona in the first place the problem wouldn’t exist now.
Birdbath (8501d4) — 5/19/2010 @ 3:57 pmLA to Arizona, water and electricity, errrrrr, that’s different.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 5/19/2010 @ 4:07 pmI updated the post with Hot Air’s coverage, including Mayor Villaraigosa’s response.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 5/19/2010 @ 4:36 pmMark Levin performed a valuable service for his listeners today: after playing Presidente Calderon’s comments made today on the White House lawn regarding the Arizona law, Levin recited all of the details of Mexico’s own laws and policies covering immigration. Very enlightening. The descriptive “draconian” really doesn’t do it justice.
GeneralMalaise (e34edc) — 5/19/2010 @ 4:57 pmBalkanization works both ways, no denying that. But I’d rather be out of electricity than out of America. (Damn, there I go again. 😉 )
nk (db4a41) — 5/19/2010 @ 5:01 pmVillaraigosa will not respond to threats although he’s happy making them.
Typical of the clown.
SPQR (26be8b) — 5/19/2010 @ 5:33 pmI like how LA and Villaraigosa are willing to boycott turquoise and bolo ties, but not power.
JD (cc9633) — 5/19/2010 @ 5:50 pm“In other news, the state of Arizona has hired noted industrialist Lex Luthor and put him in charge of managing the Grand Canyon.” 😛
M. Scott Eiland (c552ec) — 5/19/2010 @ 6:40 pmThe LA Times has a blog post by Shelby Grad propagating the lie that a unilateral cut-off of power was threatened .
Gary Pierce, a member of the Arizona Corporate Commission, sent a letter to L.A. officials Tuesday discussing the possibility that Arizona cut power to L.A. from generators in that state. It’s unclear whether Pierce’s suggestion has any support from other members of the commission — or whether such a cutoff is legally allowed.
This calls for a correction. Even the part of the letter Grad quoted makes it clear that there was no threat of cutoff, merely a challenge to LA to either stop talking boycott or carry it all the way through and renegotiate the existing power contracts, or to shut up.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641) — 5/19/2010 @ 7:05 pmJohn & Ken (Honest, they’re not paying me for my plugs!) just wrapped a good discussion of the media distortions. You can download their podcast here. 8MB, MP3 format)
The podcast is 36 minutes. Their discussion of the lies about the statement begins at 20:20.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641) — 5/19/2010 @ 7:30 pmafter playing Presidente Calderon’s comments
And he isn’t even one of those out-and-out leftists, although he barely beat out one a few years ago in Mexico’s presidential election.
I think too many people in Mexico could use a good dose of personal embarrassment over what a never-ending mess their society is. If they had that instead of clueless hubris — or a mentality where everyone but themselves should feel humbled and ashamed over their lot in life (a trait that’s generally common among left-leaning people) — they wouldn’t treat issues like illegal immigration the way they do.
Mark (411533) — 5/19/2010 @ 7:43 pm_________________________________
^ Actually, Los Angeles originally has been the recipient of a boycott — sort of an unspoken one — in which a city infamous for riots, gangs and banged-up areas with all the appeal of, say, Tijuana saw lots of tourists avoiding it, certainly the older sections of the city. Most tourists have been clinging to the areas of LA where a large number of the town’s limousine liberals hang out and live, resulting in hotels not far from where the city’s idiotic council members work often starved for business.
Mark (411533) — 5/19/2010 @ 8:16 pmthe state that has isolated itself from an America that values freedom, liberty and basic civil rights.
Given that Americans overwhelmingly support SB1070, what state is this moron talking about?
Rhymes With Right (139f21) — 5/20/2010 @ 3:23 amFuture Latin American dictator.
Brian R Higgins (05e163) — 5/20/2010 @ 3:57 pmI feel sorry for everyone I know and like in LA.
JD (d55760) — 5/20/2010 @ 4:43 pmComment by Rhymes With Right — 5/20/2010 @ 3:23 am
Kahleeforniah!
AD - RtR/OS! (c4618b) — 5/20/2010 @ 5:45 pmComment by JD — 5/20/2010 @ 4:43 pm
Don’t cry for me, Indiana.
AD - RtR/OS! (c4618b) — 5/20/2010 @ 5:46 pm