Heat Legislation in the Southeast: Gaps, Innovations, and Opportunities

Abstract

Extreme heat is the fastest-growing weather-related hazard in the United States, posing mounting risks to human health, infrastructure, and economic stability. Nowhere is this threat more urgent than in the Southeastern states, where high humidity, widespread energy poverty, and extensive outdoor labor converge to make the region particularly susceptible to extreme heat’s ill effects. While there have been efforts to review heat governance and local government responses to heat (Gallo 2023), this report provides the first multistate review of extreme heat–related legislation across 11 Southeastern states—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia—from 2014 to 2024. It catalogs more than 200 relevant bills, evaluates their success in passing, and assesses the extent to which Southeastern legislatures are responding to the public health and economic risks posed by extreme heat.