Fourteen attorneys general ask FEMA to make wildfire smoke, extreme heat eligible for major disaster aid

Thirteen Democratic state attorneys general and their counterpart in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday wrote to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to voice support for rules making extreme heat and wildfire smoke events eligible for major disaster declarations.

The letter is in support of a June petition by a coalition of unions and green advocacy groups that called for expanding the regulatory definition of “major disasters” to include smoke and heat. This move by FEMA would make the federal agency’s funds and resources available to communities dealing with their effects.

The attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta and Arizona’s Kris Mayes, noted that extreme heat killed an estimated 2,300 Americans last year, as well as more than 1,000 Arizonans in 2022, while research from the California Department of Insurance indicates seven recent heat events caused a total of 460 deaths in California and cost the state nearly $8 billion.

Meanwhile, wildfire season has started increasingly early and brought more intense blazes caused by drier conditions in much of the western U.S. Although these conditions have been worsening in the west for years, the letter also notes the orange haze that blanketed much of the east coast of the U.S. last summer due to Canadian fires. In both cases, the letter states, official data on deaths and health issues are likely underestimates.

“Such regulatory updates are in the best interests of our emergency management agencies, our residents, and the country as a whole—especially as climate change increases the likelihood of high-severity extreme heat and wildfire smoke events,” the attorneys general wrote. In addition to Bonta and Mayes, the letter was signed by Attorneys General Philip Weiser (D-Colo.), William Tong (D-Ct.), Brian Schwalb (D-D.C.) Kwame Raoul (D-Ill.), Anthony Brown (D-Md.), Andrea Joy Campbell (D-Mass.), Matthew Platkin (D-N.J.), Dana Nessel (D-Mich.), Raul Torrez (D-N.M.), Letitia James (D-N.Y.), Ellen Rosenblum (D-Ore.) and Charity Clark (D-Vt.)

The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the organizations that filed the initial petition, praised the attorneys general for writing in support of the rule. 

“FEMA can bring a mass mobilization of resources to deploy life-saving cooling centers, air conditioning and community solar. But so far FEMA’s only shown these communities piecemeal efforts and lackluster leadership,” Jean Su, energy justice director and senior attorney at the organization, said in a statement.