Affordable energy is a necessity for maintaining a safe home. Without consistent electricity and power, households are unable to preserve or prepare food, charge medical devices, or heat and cool their living spaces. Although access to electricity is ubiquitous in the United States, many families are burdened with unaffordable bills that force difficult decisions between maintaining a safe and comfortable home environment and accessing other needs. 

This report examines California’s legislative record on extreme heat from 2014 through 2025. During this period, California introduced 128 bills addressing extreme heat mitigation and adaptation, of which 57 passed—a passage rate of approximately 45%. California has also committed funding at a scale no other state has approached, treating heat as a comprehensive public investment rather than a narrow regulatory problem.

In the summer of 2022, a team of climatologists and researchers piloted the first heat warning system that ranks heat events based upon human health outcomes. This system uses local all-cause mortality data in addition to meteorological factors including air mass identification and the Excess Heat Factor to identify heat events that are likely to endanger human health in the region and applies three categories representing increasing severity.

Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard in the United States, disproportionately impacting low-income communities, older adults, and people with chronic conditions. In rural and semirural areas along the I-95 corridor in North and South Carolina, congregations are often among the few consistent institutions providing care and connection. The Cooling Communities project engaged faith leaders across North and South Carolina to understand how church communities perceive and respond to extreme heat and explore their potential role in broader resilience efforts.

This StoryMap displays recent LIHEAP data, illustrating typical allocations by state and providing an analysis on the extent to which state-level funding allocations are aligned with low-income home energy expenditure (LIHEE) burdens. The analysis summarizes trends in program funding and coverage, evaluates how state allocations compare to state LIHEE burdens, and analyzes the potential effects of a policy reform currently before Congress.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is the federal government’s primary tool for addressing energy affordability, distributing billions of dollars to low-income households each year. While LIHEAP has served millions of households for decades, it has faced ongoing criticism for the efficiency, adequacy, and fairness of its funding distribution.

Socially vulnerable communities within the contiguous United States (CONUS) face disproportionate heat exposure, yet how these disparities will change under future warming remains unclear. Although socially vulnerable communities already experience higher air temperatures, high-resolution downscaled climate projections have not been used to assess future exposure disparities under different Global Warming Levels (GWLs).

In response to rising extreme heat risks across North Carolina, this study refines and evaluates the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH) Climate and Health Program’s Heat Health Alert System (HHAS), a health-based warning framework first introduced in 2018.

Extreme heat is one of the world’s most dangerous climate challenges, threatening health, livelihoods, and infrastructure. This new resource provides practical tools for national and local authorities to strengthen coordination, planning, and investment to protect people and systems from escalating heat impacts.

Traditional relief programs following extreme weather, including extreme heat, are slow and reactive. What is needed is an approach that can quickly deploy assistance when temperatures spike. That is where parametric insurance—a financial tool that automatically releases funds when a specific weather threshold is exceeded—might be part of the solution. This report explores the feasibility of a parametric model of insurance for extreme heat using North Carolina as a case study.