I wonder if Los Angeles residents like having electricity? If so, they should probably write their councilmen and women. Seems the Los Angeles city council voted to boycott Arizona-based businesses and companies. Funny thing is, Arizon sells Los Angeles about 25% of its electricity.

And all this because of Arizons’s SB 1070.  Arizona’s SB 1070 seems like a pretty straightforward new law really. If you’re not here legally, you have to get legal or go home to your own country.

There’s a reason they’re called “Illegal aliens.” It’s because they’ve entered into this country through illegal means,  typically by crossing an unsecured border in the dark of night.

However, the Los Angeles city council has now voted on and approved a boycott of Arizona and Arizona-based companies. As a small business owner, it’s a puzzle to me how one United States city can purposefully try to inflict financial harm on their fellow countrymen, because their neighbors tried to defend and protect their own property.

If I moved out of my home and put it up for sale, and then I learned that a squatter had moved into my empty home, I’m going to call the police and report an intruder. According to Los Angeles city council, I should suffer punitive damages for trying to protect my own property from illegal occupants. Or as a blogger quipped, “Calling an illegal alien an undocumented immigrant is like calling a burgular an univited house guest.”

As I said, it all seems pretty straightforward to me. And apparently, it seems pretty straightforward to Gary Pierce, too. Read the letter he sent to the Los Angeles city council.

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

Read more here.