Elected officials in sweltering US states prioritizing fossil fuel cash over people

Elected officials in states baking under sweltering temperatures – including Florida, Texas and Louisiana – are prioritizing their donors from planet-warming industries instead of protecting their constituents, advocates say.

Florida has already seen unprecedented heat this year, with several cities breaking daily heat records this month.

The state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, accepted over $1m from energy companies in the 2022 election cycle and nearly $2m from agribusiness, another top contributor to the climate crisis.

Last month, DeSantis embarked on a campaign to scrub most references to climate change from state law. The very day DeSantis signed the bill into law, Key West registered a heat index of 115 – tying with the highest reading on record for any time of year.

The rightwing governor also came under fire in April when he signed a law preventing Florida municipalities from creating heat protections for workers. The legislation, which will go into effect on 1 July, was seemingly a response to Miami-Dade county farmworkers’ efforts to enshrine rights to mandatory rest breaks, access to water and shade, and other heat protections.

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The “cruel” policy will boost the profits of business interests, including from major agricultural and construction firms, who have contributed to DeSantis and will have particularly egregious effects for the state’s largely-immigrant agricultural work force, said Ernesto Ruiz, researcher at the Farmworker Association of Florida.

Most of those workers are “subject to a draconian, regressive and exploitative wage structure”, that bases compensation on number of crops harvested rather than hours worked, and many are forced to wear long sleeves as protection from the pesticides that are used widely, he said.

“We [also] hear from hundreds of farm workers that they purposely dehydrate themselves … to avoid having to go to the bathroom, which can be 15 to 20 minutes away,” he said. “The sponsors and DeSantis … can only get away with this law because they have what they view as unending disposable labor force.”

On Monday, Kathy Castor, a Democratic representative from Florida, urged federal officials to finalize federal workplace heat protections.

In signing the law barring the creation of municipal heat protections, DeSantis followed the rightwing leader of another rapidly warming state: Texas, where a heat dome brought triple-digit temperatures earlier this month.

Amid similarly sweltering temperatures last June, Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, signed a similar bill into law, outraging climate and labor activists.

“It’s inhumane and cruel,” one Texas outdoor worker told the Guardian at the time.

Environmentalists have also criticized Abbott in recent years for barring municipalities from enacting bans on planet-heating gas in new construction and for vowing to exclude renewable energy from economic incentive programs.

Abbott accepted over $7.5 m from fossil fuel companies during the 2022 election, making the sector the biggest industrial contributor to his campaign.

Representatives for DeSantis and Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.

Another rapidly-warming state, Nevada, scorched under high temperatures this past weekend, with more extreme heat expected this week.

Last year, Joe Lombardo, the governor of Nevada, vetoed a bill that would have required two counties to adopt heat mitigation priorities into their development plans.

Asked for comment about the policy, Lombardo’s office referred the Guardian to the governor’s veto message, which said the bill would have created “significantly more red-tape for master-planned projects in two of Nevada’s fastest growing counties”.

A far-right Republican, Lombardo has accepted campaign donations from utilities that provide gas, including Southwest Gas Corporation and NV Energy.

DeSantis, Abbott and Lombardo have all endorsed Donald Trump for president, whose extreme anti-environment views have sparked fear among experts and activists.

This month, 24 people were sent to the hospital from an Arizona Trump rally, which was held in the triple-digit heat. The former president made headlines when he told the crowd: “I don’t care about you. I just want your vote.”

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“Trump told all Americans what DeSantis, Lombardo and Abbott have been telling workers for years: ‘I don’t care about you,’” said Alex Glass of the climate advocacy non-profit Climate Power. He added that the three governors “care so little about residents of their states” that they are passing policies “guaranteeing that more people will suffer”.

Extreme temperature warnings are also in place in Louisiana where Jeff Landry, the governor, is known for his anti-climate agenda and his loyalty to the fossil fuel sector. Landry, who has also endorsed Trump, has appointed many former oil, gas and coal executives to crucial environmental positions within his administration and has taken more campaign donations from oil and gas companies than any other industry. Landry’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Studies show show that a warming climate often poses the largest economic risks to red states, but some Democrat-controlled states are also harshly impacted by warming summer temperatures.

Some leaders in those states have failed to enshrine heat protections, too.

In California, where warm summer temperatures are fueling wildfires, the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, angered advocates in April when he exempted people in prison from proposed state rules to protect indoor workers from extreme heat. The unexpected carve-out will also further delay the implementation of the long-awaited standards.

But advocates say workers, including those in prison, need the protections immediately. Temperatures were tied or broken in parts of the state last week, and much of the state is still broiling under extreme heat this week.

Samantha Leos of the state labor and workforce development agency said state officials and the Newsom administration have “worked hard to implement the new protections”, which she said will be in place this summer. She said the revised proposed text will go to vote on 20 June and the state will “continue its work in parallel” to develop heat regulations for “prisons and local jails”.

Phoenix, Arizona – America’s hottest city – is also experiencing searing heat this week.

Elected officials in the city and state have touted their climate plans. But late last month, the majority-Democrat city council in Phoenix passed restrictions on the places where people experiencing homelessness can camp.

Housing advocates say the move could make it more difficult for a population already severely impacted by extreme heat to access much-needed shade.

Kristin Couturier, a public information officer for Phoenix, said the city “conducts proactive outreach across the City to help individuals quickly connect with appropriate resources” and has been rapidly expanding access to shelters. She added that officials are “doing more for heat relief than ever before”.

Research shows that heatwaves are becoming more severe and prolonged due to the climate crisis, which is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels.