Incensed that the City Council approved an economic boycott of his state, an Arizona official has threatened to have utilities there withhold power sales to Los Angeles.
There's only one problem with his plan: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power co-owns the Arizona plants that supply up to 25 percent of city's electricity, meaning the Grand Canyon State has little control over it.
"These are our plants," said Los Angeles Councilman Ed Reyes, who authored the boycott of Arizona. "They have no control over our plants.
"It's a real puzzlement to see how far someone will go to uphold a law that allows racial profiling and discrimination."
The city's boycott was sparked by Arizona's SB 1070, which gives police expanded authority to investigate the immigration status of people they suspect may be in the country illegally.
Gary Pierce, an elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, said he was "dismayed" to learn of the boycott and noted that Los Angeles gets about one-fourth of its electricity from Arizona.
The five-member commission regulates utilities and businesses 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," Pierce wrote in a letter to Los Angeles officials.
"I am confident that Arizona's utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands."
Interim DWP General Manager Austin Beutner said the city gets 20 to 25 percent of its power from the coal-powered Navajo plant and the nuclear Palo Verde facility.
"We are part owners of both power plants, which are generating assets located in Arizona. As such, nothing in the city's resolution is inconsistent with our continuing to receive power from those DWP-owned assets."
Beutner, who also serves as the city's job czar, said he would "welcome any conventions or meetings that were going to be held in Arizona to come to Los Angeles."
Los Angeles was the first of a number of U.S. cities that have voted to boycott Arizona as a result of the law.
It was estimated Los Angeles has up to $58 million in business dealings with Arizona. However, most of those are in interstate commerce deals that cannot be easily renegotiated or terminated.
The city does have about $7 million in travel and other expenses that could be affected.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, but a spokeswoman said he stands strongly by the city's boycott.
"He will not respond to threats from a state which has isolated itself from the America that values freedom, liberty and basic civil rights," spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said.
Councilman Greig Smith, the only council member to vote against the boycott, said he had been afraid of something like the Pierce threat.
"I think our policy was foolhardy," he said. "If we say we don't do business in Arizona, then they don't do business with us. Nobody wins.
"We are the port and airport for 40 percent of the goods that come in the United States. If we say we won't deliver to Arizona, it means our people will be out of work. The real pressure should be on Washington, which has failed to implement immigration reform."
Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who is running for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, said she believed Pierce missed the point of the boycott.
"I think he's making an idle threat," Hahn said. "We're seeing, as time goes on, more and more states and cities are wanting to send a message to Arizona that it is wrong to have a law like this."
John LeSeur, policy adviser to Pierce, said the commissioner recognized the limitations in stopping the power.
"What Commissioner Pierce is saying is, you get 25 percent of your power from Arizona plants and if you are serious you should cut yourself off from that power. I'm sure people here would love to have power at 2 cents per kilowatt hour."
