LA actually owns the AZ powerplants. So perhaps they could just direct 99+ percent of the plant's output to LA for next to nothing and a mouse fart of power to AZ? That is just as possible as AZ cutting off LA. I think that AZ's only move is shutting down the plants completely. Too ballsy for them. Which LA could then respond to by firing the AZ plant workers, and replacing them with non English speaking Mexicans. You gotta love it. I bet that Gary Pierce is never heard from again.
A few years ago, GUSA, a cutting edge fishing rod company, attempted to move production from LA to AZ. They failed, in large part, because AZ workers were untrainable. Hmmm.
In related news, 60 percent of AZ gasoline comes from CA.
Los Angeles officials couldn't disagree more. They continued to stand by their Arizona boycott after a state utility official -- Arizona Corporation Commission member Gary Pierce -- on Tuesday warned that state power companies would be "happy" to stop sending electricity to Los Angeles if the city really wants to cut ties. Los Angeles gets about a quarter of its electricity from the state.
But on Thursday, the Arizona official appeared to be turning down the voltage on his warning.
After intense media coverage and a fresh round of name-calling, Los Angeles and Arizona officials acknowledge that Arizona could not unilaterally sever those power contracts.
Los Angeles has an ownership stake, albeit a small one, in two Arizona power plants -- one coal plant and one nuclear plant.
Austin Beutner, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, flaunted that detail in a statement Wednesday.
"We are part owner of both power plants, which are generating assets of the department," he said. "As such, nothing in the city's resolution is inconsistent with our continuing to receive power from those ... assets." For good measure, the official urged convention organizers who are canceling their Arizona plans to consider the "City of Angels" as their convention destination.
Pierce spokesman John LeSueur conceded that Los Angeles would have to volunteer to abandon those power contracts before the Arizona Corporation Commission could negotiate for other customers to take their place.
"The ball is in L.A.'s court," he said.
But LeSueur said the point his boss was trying to make is that Los Angeles benefits from Arizona and should be prepared to truly cut ties if it wants a genuine boycott.
And he said Beutner's claim that Los Angeles is generating its own resources is bogus since the plants are still based in Arizona.
"That's just a complete non sequitur," he said. "For him to suggest, 'because we own it we're not using Arizona resources,' just doesn't follow."