States Creating Air Conditioner Programs

What is happening? It is hot- record breaking hot. If you want to call it Climate Change or you want to call it nature, the practical implication of both is temperatures are high. States are creating programs and passing laws to increase access to air conditioning to stop people from dying of heat related issues.

Why is this important? Oregon passed a law that requires landlords to allow tenants to install portable air conditioners. If people can’t afford them., there is a program for that too. Other states are modifying their participation in the federal/state Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to access air conditioners. Dallas, Texas, requires landlords to “provide, and maintain, in operating condition, refrigerated air equipment capable of maintaining a room temperature of at least 15 degrees cooler than the outside temperature, but in no event higher than 85 (degrees) Fahrenheit in each habitable room….”

How will this be important? It’s an issue that isn’t cooling. “Bills in California and Florida that would have gone further and mandated cooling requirements for apartments failed this session.”

Route Fifty | States Look to Help Cover Air Conditioning Costs as Temps Rise