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It was already in the high 80s (°F) on one late spring day in New York City some years ago. I had eaten dinner with friends and we were standing outside chatting. Younger adults across the street started an argument that ended up a brawl that spilled into the street. I remember an older Latina on a stoop near me said “llegó el verano” (summer has arrived). Oftentimes research catches up to intuitive cultural knowledge. There is now substantial research that shows exposure to high temperatures is related to a host of diseases, premature death, as well as elevated levels of violence and poorer educational performance in kids. Research shows that poor people and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) experience hotter summers in the U.S. This may be partly due to BIPOC communities’ overrepresentation in the southernmost states that have warmer climates. However, there is research showing that BIPOC communities are hotter even within compact geographies. This is probably because BIPOC communities have higher amounts of impervious surfaces (asphalt and concrete) and less greenspace than neighboring white communities. In other work, collaborators and I show that Black people are more likely to spend a large proportion of their income on electricity and heating costs compared to white communities. This is a recipe for energy insecurity: a combination of energy demand, personal financial constraints, and behavior in response to those constraints. You may have heard of the “heat or eat” dilemma, which people have used to describe how, during the winter, people make trade-offs between food and warmth. But with climate change, we need to be talking about an analogous dilemma: “heat stroke or go broke.” Are people forgoing other necessities, like cooling, during the summer when they may really need it? This, too, is energy injustice. Many countries are working to prevent adverse health outcomes in relation to poverty, and energy poverty specifically. In the U.S., there are states that are also prioritizing health with regard to seasonal energy protections. A total of 44 states have cold-weather protections, meaning utility shut-offs are regulated to protect vulnerable populations during the winter. Substantially fewer states have summertime protections, which is an increasingly important stop gap with climate change. The resources exist to protect, and support, people even when their personal finances prevent use of health-sustaining technologies. As a child, my own unexpected health issues led my parents to financial turmoil. They could not keep up with the medical bills, and the collectors started calling. Many people experience these types of financial issues that often cascade into other areas of their finances, like utilities. We were fortunate to not have experienced a utility shut-off, but I often think about the countless people who have had such experiences during extreme cold or hot weather. Utility protections exist at a state level, but they highlight the fact that the effectiveness of summertime cooling is not only based on owning an air conditioner, but being energy secure enough to run it. In the face of these challenges, environmental justice advocates say we need to expand access to air conditioners and subsidize summertime electricity use with the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which has historically been used to fund wintertime heating needs. To me, this is a commonsense solution.
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