Biden Admin Issues First Ever Heat Wave ‘Hazard Alert’ for Workers

President Joe Biden speaks at a proclamation signing ceremony in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House on July 25, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The Biden administration issued what it described as the “first-ever hazard alert” for people working in hot weather as temperatures are slated to soar on Thursday and Friday across much of the East Coast.

In the fact sheet issued by the White House, the administration invoked the “climate crisis” for its need to send out the alert. Since taking office, President Joe Biden has issued a range of sweeping regulations targeting various appliances such as gas stoves, water heaters, air conditioners, and other items in what his administration has said is an attempt to tamp down on emissions.

“President Biden has asked the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue the first-ever Hazard Alert for heat, and DOL will also ramp up enforcement to protect workers from extreme heat,” said the fact sheet. “For years, heat has been the number one cause of weather-related deaths in America,” it said, without citing a source.

In the United States, over a 30-year period that ended in 2017, about 134 people on average died from heat-related incidents each year, according to the NOAA. About 30 per year die from the cold each year, it says.

But around the world, far more people die from cold than heat. A Lancet study noted that cold-related deaths vastly outweigh heat-related deaths, with nearly 600,000 dying from heat each year, but more than 4.5 million die from cold.

According to the White House, it says that more than 400 workers have died from “environmental heat exposure,” while thousands more are hospitalized per year.

“The Hazard Alert will reaffirm that workers have heat-related protections under federal law,” the notice said. “As part of the alert, the Department of Labor will provide information on what employers can and should be doing now to protect their workers, help ensure employees are aware of their rights, including protections against retaliation, and highlight the steps the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is currently taking to protect workers.”

Republicans have said that the Biden administration’s regulatory actions, however, could cause undue economic burden on tens of millions of Americans—namely, those who rely on gas-powered vehicles to get to work and back. Other than Republicans, some industry officials have said that the move toward electric appliances and vehicles would place more strain on power grids and would still require power plants to burn fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and petroleum.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, too, described the heat wave as “a difficult time” and asserted that Mr. Biden was treating the climate with “the urgency it requires.”

The administration’s fact sheet on Thursday was critical of Republicans and claimed they “peddle conspiracy theories” about the weather. It also faulted GOP lawmakers for wanting to repeal Mr. Biden’s mandates as well as the Congress-passed Inflation Reduction Act that went into effect last year.

The Biden administration plans to spend $7 million to develop more detailed weather predictions to anticipate weather such as heat waves, plus $152 million to boost drinking water infrastructure in California, Colorado, and Washington.

Mr. Biden’s announcement comes as about 40 percent of the U.S. population faces heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service, and high temperatures are expected to spread in the coming days to the Midwest and Northeast.

The National Weather Service's forecast map for July 27, 2023. (Weather.gov)

More than 100 members of Congress, led by Democratic Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), and Judy Chu (D-Calif.) have called on the administration to implement the new heat standard for outdoor workers as quickly as possible.

OSHA, which controversially was tasked with trying to implement a federal vaccine mandate announced in 2021 that was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court, fined a Florida farm supervisor last month for exposing workers to excessive heat after a worker from Mexico died at a farm in Parkland, Florida. Investigators determined the worker’s death could have been prevented if a labor contractor had followed established safety practices for heat.

Advisories

The National Weather Service (NWS) has implemented heat advisories or “excessive heat warnings” across much of the East Coast and Midwestern states for Thursday, noting that a “long-duration heatwave will continue in the Southwest U.S. through Saturday while hot temperatures are forecast to spread from the Central to the Eastern U.S.”

“Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit are possible. Widespread Heat Advisories and Excessive Heat Warnings have been issued,” it says.

At the same time, the largest power grid in the United States, PJM Interconnection, on Thursday declared an emergency alert as temperatures are forecast to soar and as people are set to turn up air conditioners to stay cool. An Energy Emergency Alert Level 1 was issued on Wednesday for Thursday, July 27, saying that it had the resources to meet the possible demand. However, it said it was concerned about its required contingency reserves.

Demand is forecast to reach 153,286 MW as of 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, and has approximately 186,000 MW of generating capacity. Earlier this week, a heat alert was also issued for July 28 between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.