Brickbat: It's Getting Hot

The number of gas boilers sold in Germany more than doubled in the first quarter of the year. That's one of the unintended effects of a proposed law that would ban oil or gas boilers from being installed in buildings starting Jan. 1, 2024. The law would mandate that building owners install heat pumps instead and is part of the government's efforts to make the country carbon neutral by 2054. Building owners say heat pumps are too expensive, and Vonovia, Europe's largest landlord, said it has been unable to connect 70 percent of the heat pumps it has installed in Germany because the nation's electric grid is already strained.