Heat waves

As this summer has already made clear, extreme heat is here and it looks set to get worse in the coming years.

Rising temperatures are putting more people at risk of serious health problems, such as heat stroke, cardiovascular disease and respiratory problems. This is especially true for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, pregnant women and people with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease or diabetes.

In Texas, a state that often sees the hottest temperatures in the country, more than 330 people died in 2023 from extreme heat, a new record. More recently, millions of people in cities like Houston have endured a massive heat wave while weathering power outages caused by Hurricane Beryl.

Despite the growing toll, there is shockingly little regulation around protecting people from the effects of heat. It is a stark contrast to how policies treat extreme cold. And while extreme cold remains deadlier than extreme heat, the gap between the two is likely to narrow as heat waves become more dangerous.

For example, very few states have laws requiring landlords to provide air conditioning to their tenants. Conversely, most states have policies mandating the provision of heat in the winter. But even navigating what is and isn’t required around extreme heat is difficult. A comprehensive source of state-by-state cooling policies does not yet exist, highlighting the sparse regulatory landscape regarding heat exposure.

That’s largely because policymakers are lagging behind on climate change, landlord groups are pushing back against such requirements, and the high cost of both energy bills and equipment that would actually address the problem. There are also questions about who would foot those costs, including concerns that air-conditioning mandates would simply fall on tenants in the form of higher rents.

But the need for adequate cooling will only become more urgent. And the increasing prevalence of heat waves — which are becoming stronger, longer and more frequent — underscores the fact that air conditioning is no longer a luxury but a necessity, and that its absence in people’s homes can be fatal.

There are major gaps in cooling policy

Rental property cooling policies vary by state, often by city. There is no federal law or regulation governing them, and many states do not have them. While some cities like Dallas have passed ordinances requiring landlords to provide air conditioning, Texas, for example, does not offer the same protections statewide.

“There is no basic right to air conditioning or anything like that at the federal level,” David Konisky, co-director of the Energy Justice Lab at Indiana University, told Vox.

As a result, such measures — known as occupancy laws — are highly dependent on where people live. These laws, which dictate what requirements a landlord must meet for the housing they offer, rarely include cooling. For heating, these policies typically say that rental properties must have a heating unit that keeps them above a certain temperature.

“Unlike heating, cooling is not really included in livability standards, nor is it enforced in our increasingly hot summers,” said Ruthy Gourevitch, housing policy manager at the Climate and Community Project.

read more

The Surprisingly Simple Way Cities Can Save People from Extreme Heat

Some state policies, such as those in California and New York, require landlords to maintain air conditioning that is already in a unit, but they do not require them to provide AC in the first place. Most states have experienced scorching heat waves in recent years, but many still do not have state laws requiring cooling systems.

A similar dynamic is evident when it comes to federal energy assistance programs, which often spend the bulk of their funds helping renters cover heating costs in the winter. About 80 percent of the funds allocated to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are distributed in the winter, with far less distributed in the summer, says Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. That’s largely a byproduct of the program’s underfunding, with much of the money running out after it’s used in the winter, Wolfe says.

This outage may leave renters who need this assistance struggling to cover costs during the summer, even if they have access to air conditioning.

As Rebecca Leber previously reported for Vox, this trend also applies when utilities shut off power, which they do if a customer misses their payments. Many states protect customers in these situations during the cold winter months. That’s not the case for the increasingly brutally hot summer months. According to Vox’s previous reporting, 41 states protect customers from having their utilities shut off during extreme cold if they miss a bill, while only 18 states do so for extreme heat.

Preventing such shutdowns is an important way to ensure people have access to air conditioning during extreme temperature swings, Leber writes.

“There are many policy areas where we have historically had this distinction, between cold and heat,” Konisky says.[We’ve thought that] Protecting people from extremely cold temperatures has been more important.” But now “heat is just as deadly, just as much of a concern.”

These omissions can have serious consequences

As extreme heat becomes more common and therefore more dangerous to health, the implications of these differences are becoming increasingly apparent. Experts say such omissions disproportionately affect low-income renters, who are less likely to be able to afford their own cooling systems. Black Americans are also more likely to live in places exposed to extreme heat, a 2020 study found. According to research by climate and health scientists Adrienne Hollis and Kristy Dahl, “counties with large African American populations are exposed to extreme temperatures two to three more days per year than counties with smaller African American populations.”

The risks of staying indoors without air conditioning or other cooling options during these heat waves are high, especially for the elderly, infants, pregnant people, and people with serious health conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure. Serious complications that can occur include blood clots, kidney failure, and asthma.

read more

In a rare lawsuit, an Oregon county is seeking to hold fossil fuel companies liable for extreme temperatures

“With access to cooling, unfortunately, it’s going to be another example of the economic divide in the country and also the world,” Wolfe says. About 13 percent of U.S. households don’t have air conditioning, with renters more likely to go without than homeowners.

The consequences of that deficiency have become increasingly apparent in recent years, with several cities like Phoenix recording record-high heat-related deaths. In 2023, Phoenix experienced 30 consecutive days of heat above 110 degrees Fahrenheit and saw 645 deaths, nearly double the number from the previous year. A large portion of those deaths included people with low incomes or experiencing homelessness, according to Phoenix officials.

Staying indoors during such heat waves, without air conditioning, is particularly dangerous.

“Indoors can actually get hotter than outdoors, and this is a really important environmental justice issue,” Leah Schinasi, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at Drexel University, concluded in a 2024 report. Heliyon study.

The policy that could change

In addition to regulations that consider cooling systems a necessity, experts say more money is needed to cover the costs involved.

Some cities where temperatures are consistently high and rising, such as Dallas, have passed ordinances in recent years requiring landlords to provide air conditioning that keeps units below a specific temperature. Other cities, such as Los Angeles, are considering similar proposals. Such policies complement a handful of state-level laws.

Seth Gertz-Billingsley, a Harvard law student who has studied heat protection policies in several states, notes that Oregon’s law is one of the most comprehensive. That law, which passed in 2022, allows tenants to install air conditioning and also establishes a hardship fund to help low-income tenants afford AC. However, it does not require all landlords to provide air conditioning.

read more

Biden Administration Unveils First-Ever Heat Protection for Workers.

Proponents argue that, in addition to the stricter requirements for air conditioning and other cooling systems, it is important that such policies also take into account the costs associated with these changes, and not simply pass these costs on to tenants.

For example, federal and state governments could offer subsidies to landlords, Wolfe says. And more funding is needed for energy assistance programs that directly target renters. Wolfe estimates that LIHEAP could use an additional $3 billion annually to cover the costs people incur during the summer. Tenant protections from rent increases and potential evictions should also be included in such proposals, Gourevitch says.

Another important consideration is the need to install cooling options, such as heat pumps, which are more efficient than traditional AC. The paradox of air conditioning has long been that it is crucial to help maintain people’s health during heat waves, but at the same time it releases a significant amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Devices such as heat pumps, which move heat from indoors to outdoors and vice versa, are a more climate-friendly alternative, especially in the winter, because they are much more efficient than conventional heating systems.

To change this policy, however, lawmakers must recognize how quickly climate change is happening and affecting people’s lives. Forecasts for this summer and beyond show the world is poised to get hotter.

“Many of our habitability laws and enforcement policies are decades old and need to be updated to address the new reality we live in,” Gourevitch said.