LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
We said we would boycott them.
Now they are saying they aren't going to take a possible boycott laying down.
Is Arizona striking back?
It sure looks and sounds that way.
Following Los Angeles' decision to boycott Arizona, the Grand Canyon state is threatening to put us in a hole. Literally.
Los Angeles gets as much as 25 percent of its electricity from Arizona power plants.
And a new letter that has come to light -- and written to LA's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- suggests Arizona would consider pulling the plug in retaliation.
Dave Bryan reports the letter, written by Gary Pierce, Arizona Corporation Commissioner, "can be" construed as light-hearted and even "tongue-in-cheek" but no telling what would happen if the seriousness of the threat were to catch on.
Writes Pierce to Mayor Villaraigosa, "If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utiltiites to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-base generation. I am confident that Arizona's utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands."
Put that way, says Bryan, "the threat of retribution is not so funny."