The Pacific Northwest is an unlikely front in the fight for cooling

Tenant advocates in the Pacific Northwest are sounding the alarm on the dangers of extreme heat, calling on states to pass laws that require landlords to install cooling systems.

As Jeva Lange explains in Heatmap, "Indoor air temperature maximums are not a new idea — Dallas has had one since 2017 — but the few laws on the books are almost exclusively in hot-climate cities and counties." As extreme heat waves become more common, heat-related deaths are a growing danger, particularly for vulnerable groups like children and elderly people. Across 250 U.S. locations analyzed by Climate Central, there was an average increase of 21 days per year with "dangerously high temperatures" between 1970 and 2022.

Washington and Oregon failed to pass right-to-cooling bills this past legislative session, but cities like Portland are exploring their own regulations, and state lawmakers took a smaller but still significant step by passing SB 6200, which prohibits landlords from barring renters from installing their own AC units. 

Experts say right-to-cooling laws are increasingly necessary. The question is whether they'll come through "the fast-track pursuit of local ordinances" or "the sluggish statewide process" — and how many people may die in the meantime.