President Hipolito Mejia met with power generators and representatives of the electricity distribution companies yesterday in an attempt to end or reduce the long blackouts. Unites States Ambassador Hans Hertell also attended the meeting at the Presidential Palace. The President was accompanied by the Central Bank Governor Jose Lois Malkun, former Electricity Superintendent Julio Cross, CDEEE chief Cesar Sanchez, Finance Minister Rafael Calderon and the President’s economic advisor, Andy Dahuajre. No official statements were released at the meeting’s end, but Ambassador Hertell said that “they were looking for solutions to the problem.” Representatives from AES-Andres, Ege-Haina, CPP-Puerto Plata and the three EDEs were present. Julio Cross was quite succinct in his statement to the press, saying, “This is a problem of sustaining the electricity sector, because the money they collect is not enough to pay the costs of generation.”