Electricity Minister Hassan Younis on Sunday declared that the government should "reconsider" its current policy of subsidizing energy. "People often use more than one air conditioner in their homes," he said, noting that 98 percent of Egyptian citizens benefited from state energy subsidies. Commenting on the electricity blackout that struck seven different cities throughout Egypt over the weekend, Younis said that such power cuts were prone to happen all over the world. "Hospitals and other strategic buildings must be equipped with their own power generators by law," he said. "And if we could reduce consumption for two hours a day, we wouldn't experience these kinds of outages." Replying to a question as to why street lamps were kept lit until early morning, the minister explained that responsibility for this laid with municipal councils and the Ministry of Transportation. "We only provide them with technical assistance," he said. Meanwhile, according to a report issued by the cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center, the amount of electricity produced in June exceeded domestic consumption levels, with 12 million kilowatts being produced while only 10 million kilowatts were consumed. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
