Spiraling costs in Germany for developing renewable energy sources could damage the country's economic competitiveness and need to be scaled back, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday—without elaborating much on how. Energy policy has become a hot issue in campaigning for Germany's parliamentary elections in September, with households and businesses alike complaining about big energy bills. Many European companies are also concerned that high electricity costs at home are becoming increasingly unsustainable, particularly as their U.S. rivals benefit from lower energy prices resulting from the shale gas boom. --Jan Hromadko, The Wall Street Journal, 14 June 2013
