Arizona Threatens to Turn Lights off in L.A.

You boycott our state, we'll shut off your lights.

That's essentially the message Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce delivered to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after the L.A. City Council voted to boycott Arizona in protest over its new and controversial immigration law.

In a letter to Villaraigosa, available on the conservative blog Hot Air, Pierce writes that he was "dismayed" by the city council's vote and threatened to respond by shutting off the city's Arizona-based electricity, which accounts for 25 percent of Los Angeles' power.

"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," Pierce wrote.

The immigration legislation allows law enforcement to ask anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant to furnish proof of citizenship or legal residency. Critics have blasted the law as encouraging racial profile, a claim that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer denies.

The law, which goes into effect in July, is being challenged in court.

In his letter, Pierce said that "people of goodwill can disagree over the merits of [the immigration law]. A state-wide economic boycott is not a message sent in goodwill."