[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




 
                   SILENT KILLER: THE RISING PROBLEM
                      OF EXTREME HEAT IN THE U.S.

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                      SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE,
                             AND TECHNOLOGY
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                             JULY 21, 2021

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-27

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
 
 
 
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] 


       Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov
       
       
       
                      ______                       


             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
45-185PDF           WASHINGTON : 2022 
        
       
       

              COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY

             HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas, Chairwoman
ZOE LOFGREN, California              FRANK LUCAS, Oklahoma, 
SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon                 Ranking Member
AMI BERA, California                 MO BROOKS, Alabama
HALEY STEVENS, Michigan,             BILL POSEY, Florida
    Vice Chair                       RANDY WEBER, Texas
MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey           BRIAN BABIN, Texas
JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York              ANTHONY GONZALEZ, Ohio
MELANIE A. STANSBURY, New Mexico     MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida
BRAD SHERMAN, California             JAMES R. BAIRD, Indiana
ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado              DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida
JERRY McNERNEY, California           MIKE GARCIA, California
PAUL TONKO, New York                 STEPHANIE I. BICE, Oklahoma
BILL FOSTER, Illinois                YOUNG KIM, California
DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey          RANDY FEENSTRA, Iowa
DON BEYER, Virginia                  JAKE LaTURNER, Kansas
CHARLIE CRIST, Florida               CARLOS A. GIMENEZ, Florida
SEAN CASTEN, Illinois                JAY OBERNOLTE, California
CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania             PETER MEIJER, Michigan
DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina         VACANCY
GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin                VACANCY
DAN KILDEE, Michigan
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas
                                 ------                                

                      Subcommittee on Environment

              HON. MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey, Chairwoman
SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon             STEPHANIE I. BICE, Oklahoma,
DAN KILDEE, Michigan                     Ranking Member
LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas               ANTHONY GONZALEZ, Ohio
CHARLIE CRIST, Florida               RANDY FEENSTRA, Iowa
SEAN CASTEN, Illinois                CARLOS A. GIMENEZ, Florida

                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                             July 21, 2021

                                                                   Page

Hearing Charter..................................................     2

                           Opening Statements

Statement by Representative Mikie Sherrill, Chairwoman, 
  Subcommittee on Environment, Committee on Science, Space, and 
  Technology, U.S. House of Representatives......................     9
    Written Statement............................................    10

Statement by Representative Stephanie I. Bice, Ranking Member, 
  Subcommittee on Environment, Committee on Science, Space, and 
  Technology, U.S. House of Representatives......................    12
    Written Statement............................................    13

Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Chairwoman, 
  Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of 
  Representatives................................................    14
    Written Statement............................................    15

                               Witnesses:

Dr. Vivek Shandas, Ph.D., Professor, Nohad A. Toulan School of 
  Urban Studies and Planning, Founder and Director, Sustaining 
  Urban Places Research Lab, Portland State University
    Oral Statement...............................................    16
    Written Statement............................................    19

Dr. Melissa Guardaro, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor, 
  Healthy Urban Environments & Knowledge Exchange for Resilience, 
  Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, Arizona 
  State University
    Oral Statement...............................................    22
    Written Statement............................................    24

Mr. Shimon Elkabetz, CEO, Co-Founder, Tomorrow.io
    Oral Statement...............................................    35
    Written Statement............................................    37

Dr. Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, Interim Director, The Center for 
  Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan 
  School of Public Health, Pediatrician, Boston Children's 
  Hospital, Fellow, Adrienne Arsht--Rockefeller Foundation 
  Resilience Center
    Oral Statement...............................................    44
    Written Statement............................................    46

Discussion.......................................................    52

              Appendix: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions

Dr. Vivek Shandas, Ph.D., Professor, Nohad A. Toulan School of 
  Urban Studies and Planning, Founder and Director, Sustaining 
  Urban Places Research Lab, Portland State University...........    70

Dr. Melissa Guardaro, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor, 
  Healthy Urban Environments & Knowledge Exchange for Resilience, 
  Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, Arizona 
  State University...............................................    72

Mr. Shimon Elkabetz, CEO, Co-Founder, Tomorrow.io................    76

Dr. Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, Interim Director, The Center for 
  Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan 
  School of Public Health, Pediatrician, Boston Children's 
  Hospital, Fellow, Adrienne Arsht--Rockefeller Foundation 
  Resilience Center..............................................    78


                   SILENT KILLER: THE RISING PROBLEM

                      OF EXTREME HEAT IN THE U.S.

                              ----------                              


                        WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2021

                  House of Representatives,
                       Subcommittee on Environment,
               Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
                                                   Washington, D.C.

     The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., 
in room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Mikie 
Sherrill [Chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


     Chairwoman Sherrill. OK, the hearing will come to order. 
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare recess at 
any time. Before I deliver my opening remarks, I wanted to note 
that today the Committee is meeting both in person and 
virtually. I want to announce a couple of reminders to the 
Members about the conduct of this hearing. First, Members and 
staff who are attending in person and are unvaccinated against 
COVID-19 must stay masked throughout the hearing. Unvaccinated 
Members may remove their masks only during their questioning 
under the five-minute rule. Members who are attending virtually 
should keep their video feed on as long as they are present in 
the hearing. Members are responsible for their own microphones. 
Please also keep your microphones muted unless you are 
speaking. Finally, if Members have documents they wish to 
submit for the record, please e-mail them to the Committee 
Clerk, whose e-mail address was circulated prior to the 
hearing.
     Good morning, and welcome to today's Environment 
Subcommittee hearing to discuss the rising problem of extreme 
heat in the U.S. I'd like to welcome and thank our esteemed 
witnesses for participating in this very timely and important 
meeting. Almost exactly a year ago this Committee held a 
hearing on the intersections of extreme heat, COVID-19, and 
environmental justice. I wish I could say things have gotten 
better since then. While we can credit science for the rapid 
development of multiple effective vaccines to combat COVID-19, 
extreme heat has only worsened, and vulnerable populations 
continue to be disproportionately impacted by both.
     The recent record-breaking heat dome that devastated the 
Pacific Northwest shattered our expectations of the severity of 
extreme heat. Temperatures reached 40 degrees above average in 
some places, causing pavement to buckle, streetcar cables to 
melt, and at least 193 deaths across the region. One of our 
witnesses, Dr. Vivek Shandas, went out and measured 
temperatures during the heat dome. He found that in affluent 
neighborhoods they reached 99 degrees, compared to 120 degrees 
in the poorest neighborhoods in Portland, where the highest 
number of deaths occurred. Most of these deaths were homeless, 
elderly, outdoor workers, and those with underlying health 
issues.
     A rapid analysis by a global team of researchers found 
that the Pacific Northwest heat dome would have been nearly 
impossible without warming from greenhouse gases. This analysis 
also showed that 2 degrees Celsius of warming would likely 
cause severe heat events like this one to occur every five to 
ten years instead of once every 1,000 years. NOAA (National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) research also predicts 
that generational heat waves could become annual events. 
Extreme heat is one of the clearest signals of global warming, 
with climate change making heat waves longer, more frequent, 
and more intense. Extreme heat often occurs alongside drought, 
wildfires, and other climate-fueled disasters.
     We are seeing this firsthand in the West, which is 
currently suffering from a historic drought period, and an 
early and brutal wildfire season. In addition to extreme heat 
events worsening, average temperatures are also on the rise 
across the U.S., with some regions warming faster than others. 
Close to my district, in New York City, temperatures have gone 
up 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit on average since the advent of 
satellite observations in the 1960's. The number of days per 
year in New York City with a heat index of 90 degrees is 
predicted to increase from 16 to 51 by midcentury with no 
action to combat greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 
report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
     Climate change is causing nights to warm even faster than 
days across most of the U.S. This is particularly alarming for 
human health risks, as cooler nighttime conditions usually 
provide relief from a hot day, especially for those without air 
conditioning. We need to also consider that cities are even 
more susceptible to extreme heat and hot nights than rural 
areas because of the built environment and lack of vegetation. 
Surfaces like pavement, asphalt, and rooftops absorb and reemit 
heat. This creates urban heat islands and causes temperatures 
to be up to 10 degrees higher than surrounding areas.
     As extreme heat ramps up in the U.S., so too will heat-
related illnesses and deaths. Extreme heat is the deadliest 
natural disaster, killing more people than floods, tornadoes, 
and other extreme weather events combined. The CDC (Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention) officially reports that heat 
kills more than 600 Americans a year, but other studies point 
to this being a severe undercount. The number may be as high as 
12,000 heat-related deaths in the U.S., with communities of 
color and low-income communities most at risk. The harmful 
effects of extreme heat to human health stresses our public 
health system. It also widens gaps in equity, and leads to 
losses in worker productivity, costing our economy billions. 
Sectors such as agriculture and utilities are also vulnerable.
     In 2015, NOAA, alongside the CDC, launched the National 
Integrated Heat Health Information System, or NIHHIS. NIHHIS 
works to reduce U.S. heat risks by developing science-based 
products and services and building capacity, communication, and 
public understanding of extreme heat. NIHHIS has--also 
collaborates with other Federal agencies and with city and 
State decisionmakers to co-produce actionable information 
needed to inform their planning process. Additionally, the 
National Weather Service (NWS) has updated its heat indices and 
heat watches, warnings, and advisories. NWS has also devised a 
prototype HeatRisk forecast to better communicate heat risk for 
specific locations and identify the most at-risk groups. The 
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) publishes an Excessive 
Heat Events Guidebook. While some progress has been made in 
recent years, so much more remains to be done on the Federal, 
State, and local levels.
     I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses today, 
who are at the leading edge of extreme heat research and 
solutions, about the major research and coordination gaps that 
remain and how additional investments and resources can help 
fill them.
     [The prepared statement of Chairwoman Sherrill follows:]

    Good morning, and welcome to today's Environment 
Subcommittee hearing to discuss the rising problem of extreme 
heat in the U.S. I would like to welcome and thank our esteemed 
witnesses for participating in this very timely and important 
hearing.
    Almost exactly a year ago, this Committee held a hearing on 
the intersections of extreme heat, COVID-19, and environmental 
justice. I wish I could say things have gotten better since 
then. While we can credit science for the rapid development of 
multiple effective vaccines to combat COVID-19, extreme heat 
has only worsened, and vulnerable populations continue to be 
disproportionately impacted by both.
    The recent record-breaking heat dome that devastated the 
Pacific Northwest shattered our expectations of the severity of 
extreme heat. Temperatures reached 40 degrees above average in 
some places, causing pavement to buckle, streetcar cables to 
melt, and at least 193 deaths across the region. One of our 
witnesses, Dr. Vivek Shandas, went out and measured 
temperatures during the heat dome. He found that in affluent 
neighborhoods they reached 99 degrees, compared to 120 degrees 
in the poorest neighborhoods in Portland, where the highest 
number of deaths occurred. Most of these deaths were homeless, 
elderly, outdoor workers, and those with underlying health 
issues.
    A rapid analysis by a global team of researchers found that 
the Pacific Northwest heat dome would have been nearly 
impossible without warming from greenhouse gases. This analysis 
also showed that 2 degrees Celsius of warming would likely 
cause severe heat events like this one to occur every five to 
10 years instead of once every 1000 years. NOAA research also 
predicts that generational heat waves could become annual 
events.
    Extreme heat is one of the clearest signals of global 
warming, with climate change making heat waves longer, more 
frequent, and more intense. Extreme heat often occurs alongside 
drought, wildfires, and other climate-fueled disasters. We are 
seeing this firsthand in the West, which is currently suffering 
from a historic drought period, and an early and brutal 
wildfire season.
    In addition to extreme heat events worsening, average 
temperatures are also on the rise across the U.S., with some 
regions warming faster than others. Close to my district, in 
New York City, temperatures have gone up 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit 
on average since the advent of satellite observations in the 
1960s. The number of days per year in New York City with a heat 
index of 90 degrees is predicted to increase from 16 to 51 by 
midcentury with no action to combat greenhouse gas emissions, 
according to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
    Climate change is causing nights to warm even faster than 
days across most of the U.S. This is particularly alarming for 
human health risks, as cooler nighttime conditions usually 
provide relief from a hot day, especially for those without air 
conditioning.
    We need to also consider that cities are even more 
susceptible to extreme heat and hot nights than rural areas 
because of the built environment and lack of vegetation. 
Surfaces like pavement, asphalt, and rooftops absorb and reemit 
heat. This creates urban heat islands and causes temperatures 
to be up to 10 degrees higher than surrounding areas.
    As extreme heat ramps up in the U.S., so too will heat-
related illnesses and deaths. Extreme heat is the deadliest 
natural disaster, killing more people than floods, tornadoes, 
and other extreme weather events combined. The CDC officially 
reports that heat kills more than 600 Americans a year, but 
other studies point to this being a severe undercount. The 
number maybe be as high as 12,000 heat-related deaths in the 
U.S., with communities of color and low-income communities most 
at risk.
    The harmful effects of extreme heat to human health 
stresses our public health system. It also widens gaps in 
equity, and leads to losses in worker productivity, costing our 
economy billions. Sectors such as agriculture and utilities are 
also vulnerable.
    In 2015, NOAA, alongside the CDC, launched the National 
Integrated Heat Health Information System, or NIHHIS. NIHHIS 
works to reduce U.S. heat risks by developing science-based 
products and services and building capacity, communication, and 
public understanding of extreme heat. NIHHIS also collaborates 
with other federal agencies and with city and state decision 
makers to co-produce actionable information needed to inform 
their planning processes.
    Additionally, the National Weather Service has updated its 
heat indices and heat watches, warnings, and advisories. NWS 
has also developed a prototype HeatRisk forecast to better 
communicate heat risk for specific locations and identify the 
most at-risk groups. The EPA publishes an Excessive Heat Events 
Guidebook. While some progress has been made in recent years, 
so much more remains to be done on the federal, state, and 
local levels.
    I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses today 
who are at the leading edge of extreme heat research and 
solutions, about the major research and coordination gaps that 
remain and how additional investments and resources can help 
fill them.

     Chairwoman Sherrill. The Chair will now recognize Mrs. 
Bice for an opening statement.
     Mrs. Bice. Thank you, Chairwoman Sherrill, and I also want 
to recognize Full Committee Chairwoman Johnson, who's joining 
us remotely. Thank you for holding today's timely and important 
hearing. I also want to thank our witnesses for appearing 
before the Subcommittee and sharing their expertise with us 
this morning.
     This summer historic heat waves across the U.S. have been 
making headlines week after week, and the impacts have been 
tragic. Many outdoor businesses--business operations have been 
curbed out of concern for operational safety, resulting in 
significant economic losses. This comes on top of the crippling 
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic we've already seen. Even more 
tragic is the number of lives that have been lost in heat-
related deaths this summer alone. As a couple of our witnesses 
will point out, heat-related deaths of Americans outnumber the 
fatalities connected to all other natural disasters.
     Although climate change is likely making the occurrence of 
extreme heat more common, we cannot simply sit back and accept 
such a fate. With greater innovation and strategic planning 
from both the public and private sector, the negative effects 
of heat waves and other extreme weather events can be better 
mitigated, and lives can be saved. One such example of a 
private entity acting now is Tomorrow.io, whose CEO (chief 
executive officer) and Co-Founder, Shimon Elkabetz, is here as 
a witness today.
     While the National Weather Service provides important 
weather forecasts and warnings, it can be hard for people to 
interpret what this data means for them as individuals. 
Tomorrow.io helps alleviate that confusion by communicating 
weather forecasts in a clear, operationally focused manner. For 
example, Tomorrow.io can monitor when and where heat will 
exceed a specific threshold that will make an electric grid 
susceptible to outages. Utility companies can use this 
information to make more informed decisions regarding grid 
operations. The risk of a power outage occurring can also be 
conveyed to utility customers so that they may prepare backup 
plans for staying cool.
     Tomorrow.io is an excellent example of how commercial 
enterprises can successfully collaborate with the Federal 
Government to accelerate technological advances and improve 
weather forecasts, as well as communication of forecasts. 
Tomorrow.io uses publicly available data and incorporates it 
into their own in-house models to provide more localized 
forecasts. They also do so in this manner that, when utilized 
by government agencies, can save millions in taxpayer dollars, 
compared to an exclusive Federal operation. If encouraging more 
public/private partnerships like this can save lives and money, 
then by all means we should do all we can to increase the 
participation of the private sector.
     To close, I want to paint somewhat of a positive light, 
because I believe societal progress is too often overlooked for 
attention-grabbing headlines. It is important to remember that 
the rising cost of disasters is closely related to the overall 
rise in economic development. Extreme events are more costly 
because we have more infrastructure to damage, not just because 
of the complex relationship between intensity and climate. In 
fact, direct economic losses from disasters, as a proportion of 
global GDP (gross domestic product), have trended down over the 
last 30 years. And just last week the Rhodium Group published a 
report that predicted U.S. emission reductions could reach as 
much as 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, exceeding the 
Paris Accord goal of the Obama Administration.
     We are on the right track, and it is always my goal to 
make more progress, but before we take every negative headline 
as an unavoidable future, we should first understand what we've 
been doing right, what we need to fix, and how we can take 
action to ensure our positive trends continue. Thank you, 
Chairwoman Sherrill. I yield back.
     [The prepared statement of Mrs. Bice follows:]

    Good morning Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you for holding 
today's timely and important hearing. I also want to thank our 
witnesses for appearing before the subcommittee and sharing 
their expertise with us this morning.
    This summer, historic heatwaves across the U.S. have made 
headlines week after week and the impacts have been tragic. 
Many outdoor business operations have been curbed out of 
concern for operational safety, resulting in significant 
economic losses. This comes on top of the crippling effects the 
COVID-19 pandemic has already had. Even more tragic is the 
number of lives that have been lost in heat-related deaths this 
summer alone. As a couple of our witnesses will point out, heat 
related deaths of Americans outnumber the fatalities connected 
to all other natural disasters.
    Although climate change is likely making the occurrence of 
extreme heat more common, we cannot simply sit back and accept 
such a fate. With greater innovation and strategic planning 
from both the public and private sector, negative affects from 
heat waves and other extreme weather events can be better 
mitigated and lives can be saved. One such example of a private 
entity acting now is Tomorrow.io, whose CEO and co-founder, 
Shimon Elkabetz, is here today as a witness.
    While the National Weather Service provides important 
weather forecasts and warnings, it can be hard for people to 
interpret what this data means for them as individuals.
    Tomorrow.io helps alleviate that confusion by communicating 
weather forecasts in a clear, operationally focused manner. For 
example, Tomorrow.io can monitor when and where heat will 
exceed a specific threshold that will make an electric grid 
susceptible to outages. Utility companies can use this 
information to make more informed decisions regarding grid 
operations. The risk of a power outage occurring can also be 
conveyed to utility customers so that they may prepare back-up 
plans for staying cool.
    Tomorrow.io is an excellent example of how commercial 
enterprises can successfully collaborate with the federal 
government to accelerate technological advances and improve 
weather forecasts, as well as communication of forecasts. 
Tomorrow.io uses publicly available data and incorporates it 
into their own in-house models to provide more localized 
forecasts. They also do this in a manner that, when utilized by 
government agencies, can save millions in taxpayer dollars 
compared to an exclusive federal operation. If encouraging more 
public-private partnerships like this can save lives and money, 
then by all means we should do all we can to increase the 
participation of the private sector.
    To close, I want to paint somewhat of a positive light, 
because I believe societal progress is too often overlooked for 
attention grabbing headlines. It's important to remember that 
the rising cost of disasters is closely related to the overall 
rise in economic development. Extreme events are more costly 
because we have more infrastructure to damage, not just because 
of the complex relationship between intensity and climate. In 
fact, direct economic losses from disasters, as a proportion of 
global GDP, have trended down over the past 30 years.
    And just last week, the Rhodium Group published a report 
that predicted U.S. emission reductions could reach as much as 
30% below 2005 levels by 2030, exceeding the Paris Accord goal 
of the Obama Administration.
    We're on the right track and it is always my goal to make 
more progress. But before we take every negative headline as an 
unavoidable future, we should first understand what we have 
been doing right, what we need to fix, and how we take action 
to ensure our positive trends continue.
    Thank you, Chairwoman Sherrill. I yield back.

     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. And we're honored to have 
the Full Committee Chairwoman, Ms. Johnson, with us today, and 
the Chair now recognizes the Chairwoman for an opening 
statement.
     Chairwoman Johnson. Good morning, and let me welcome all 
of our witnesses, and thank you for all of you joining us 
today. I'd like to welcome everyone to this hearing to discuss 
the very pressing problem of extreme heat in this country. 
Being from Texas, my constituents and I expect to prepare for 
high summer temperatures. However, other parts of the country 
do not have the infrastructure needed to handle extremely high 
temperatures. Just last month, news reports documented the 
record-breaking heat dome in the Pacific Northwest. In 
Portland, maximum daily records were broken every day for three 
consecutive days. The resulting heat even melted transit power 
lines and halted public transit. In Washington State, extreme 
temperatures featured--fractured roads and sidewalks. Regions 
where daily June temperatures usually only reach 70 degrees saw 
temperatures nearing 120 degrees.
     Beyond the damage to infrastructure, this heat cost lives. 
According to a State medical examiner, the extreme temperatures 
since this June killed over 100 people in Oregon alone. Because 
attributing fatalities to heat is so difficult, the actual 
heat-related death toll is likely really much higher. With heat 
stress often aggravating preexisting medical conditions, these 
deaths will be concentrated among our elderly and the very 
young.
     Beyond events like the--like last month's heat dome, 
dangerous temperatures are a constant concern for many 
Americans. One year ago we held a hearing to discuss the 
intersection of COVID-19, extreme heat, and environmental 
justice, highlighting the unequal threat from urban heat 
islands. Historically redlined neighborhoods are often home to 
our most vulnerable communities. In these neighborhoods, 
concrete is more abundant, trees are scarce, and air 
conditioning is rare. This leads to urban heat islands that can 
be as much as seven degrees warmer than any other part of a 
city. The unequal exposure to extreme heat in urban heat 
islands can cause harm beyond just public health. Extreme heat 
has always been linked to worse educational outcomes for 
children.
     The prevalence of urban heat islands throughout the U.S. 
is amplifying the heat stress from the uptick in the 
unreasonable warmth in this country. The Northeast saw some of 
its warmest June temperatures in almost a decade. Within a span 
of five months, Texas went from experiencing some of its 
coldest temperatures on record to bracing for an unusually 
early heatwave. These temperature extremes have led to energy 
grid failures, water shortages, imperiling the lives of 
millions. We are seeing the climate crisis happen right before 
us.
     When addressing crisis of extreme heat, our Federal 
science agencies have a critical role to play. I look forward 
to the discussion with today's esteemed panel on how we can 
better coordinate Federal resources to address the worsening 
extreme heat in the country. I thank you and I yield back.
     [The prepared statement of Chairwoman Johnson follows:]

    Good morning to our witnesses and thank you for joining us 
here today. I'd like to welcome everyone to this hearing to 
discuss the very pressing problem of extreme heat in this 
country.
    Being from Texas, my constituents and I can expect and 
prepare for high summer temperatures. However, other parts of 
the country do not have the infrastructure needed to handle 
extremely high temperatures. Just last month, news reports 
documented the record-breaking ``heat dome'' in the Pacific 
Northwest. In Portland, maximum daily temperature records were 
broken every day for three consecutive days. The resulting heat 
even melted transit power lines and halted public transit.
    In Washington state, extreme temperatures fractured roads 
and sidewalks. Regions where daily June temperatures usually 
only reach 70 degrees saw temperatures nearing 120. Beyond the 
damage to infrastructure, this heat cost lives.
    According to state medical examiner, the extreme 
temperatures since this June killed over one hundred people in 
Oregon alone. Because attributing fatalities to heat is so 
difficult, the actual heat-related death toll is likely much 
higher.
    With heat stress often aggravating preexisting medical 
conditions, these deaths will be concentrated among our elderly 
and the very young.
    Beyond events like last month's ``heat dome'', dangerous 
temperatures are a constant concern for many Americans. One 
year ago, we held a hearing to discuss the intersection of 
COVID-19, extreme heat, and environmental justice, highlighting 
the unequal threat from urban heat islands.
    Historically redlined neighborhoods are often home to our 
most vulnerable communities. In these neighborhoods, concrete 
is more abundant, trees are scarce, and air conditioning is 
rare. This leads to urban heat islands that can be as much as 
seven degrees warmer than other parts of a city. The unequal 
exposure to extreme heat in urban heat islands can cause harm 
beyond just public health. Extreme heat has also been linked to 
worse educational outcomes for children.
    The prevalence of urban heat islands throughout the U.S. is 
amplifying the heat stress from the uptick in unseasonable 
warmth in this country. The Northeast saw some of its warmest 
June temperatures in almost a decade. Within a span of five 
months, Texas went from experiencing some of its coldest 
temperatures on record to bracing for an unusually early 
heatwave.
    These temperature extremes have led to energy grid failures 
and water shortages, imperiling the lives of millions. We are 
seeing the climate crisis happen right before us.
    When addressing crisis of extreme heat, our federal science 
agencies have a critical role to play. I look forward to the 
discussion with today's esteemed panel on how we can better 
coordinate federal resources to address the worsening extreme 
heat in this country.
    Thank you and I yield back.

     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. If there 
are Members who wish to submit additional opening statements, 
your statements will be added to the record at this point. At 
this time I'd like to introduce our witnesses.
     Our first witness is Dr. Vivek Shandas. Dr. Shandas is a 
Professor in the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning. 
He is also the Founder and Director of the Sustaining Urban 
Places Research Lab at Portland State University. He is an 
interdisciplinary scholar whose expertise is in climate change, 
urban heat and health, environmental justice, air quality 
management, green infrastructure, and spatial mapping. Dr. 
Shandas spoke--Dr. Shandas's focus on climate equity involves 
direct engagement with historically marginalized communities in 
describing local stressors, and effective approaches to 
improving accessibility to decisionmaking systems.
     Next is Dr. Melissa Guardaro. Dr. Guardaro is an Assistant 
Research Professor in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of 
Sustainability and Innovation at Arizona State University, and 
works for the Healthy Urban Environments Initiative and 
Knowledge Exchange for Resilience. Her research focuses on 
adaptation, equity, vulnerability, urban policy, and governance 
for the mitigation and adaptation to extreme heat and urban 
heat island effects. She's currently working to create 
neighborhood heat solutions that improve thermal comfort and 
public health outcomes with the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and 
Mesa, as well as the Nature Conservancy, the Maricopa County 
Health Department, and community-based organizations.
     Our third witness is Mr. Shimon Elkabetz. Mr. Elkabetz is 
the CEO and Co-Founder of Tomorrow.io. He served in the Israeli 
Air Force for 11 years. Multiple near-death weather-related 
experiences during his service stoked a fascination with the 
weather. Tomorrow.io was founded as a Boston-based weather 
intelligence and climate security company to bridge the gap 
between forecast and decisionmaking, working with customers, 
including Federal agencies, utilities, airlines, on demand 
services, and professional sports teams.
     Our final witness is Dr. Aaron Bernstein. Dr. Bernstein is 
the Interim Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the 
Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public 
Health, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital, and an 
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. 
Dr. Bernstein focuses on the health impacts of the climate 
crisis on children's health and advancing solutions.
     As our witnesses should know, you will each have five 
minutes for your spoken testimony. Your written testimony will 
be included in the record of--for the hearing. When you all 
have completed your spoken testimony, we will begin with 
questions. Each Member will have five minutes to question the 
panel. We will start with Dr. Shandas. Doctor?

             TESTIMONY OF DR. VIVEK SHANDAS, PH.D.,

               PROFESSOR, NOHAD A. TOULAN SCHOOL

                 OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING,

         FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, SUSTAINING URBAN PLACES

            RESEARCH LAB, PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

     Dr. Shandas. Thank you. I hope you can hear me OK. It's a 
real honor to be able to testify here in front of you today. 
Chairwoman Johnson, Chairwoman Sherrill, Members of the 
Subcommittee on the Environment, I've been studying urban heat 
for the greater part of about 20 years now, and admittedly it 
started with a big grant from the National Science Foundation 
to refine our measurement systems, advance geospatial mapping 
technologies, and getting myself tenure, frankly, at my first 
job. In that early work we relied heavily on satellite-derived 
descriptions about how heat varied across the continental U.S., 
maintaining a rather technical approach to the field. Over the 
past decade, however, we've relied more and more on hyperlocal 
descriptions of what's happening in and around our urban areas. 
And as if you--and as you've identified, these urban heat 
islands have been directly attributable to differences in 
temperature, many of which we've seen in larger parts of the 
country. And this has been really underscored by the number of 
deaths that have been happening due to heat waves, and the big 
part of which I'm turning my attention now to engaging 
community-based organizations in this work.
     As you likely have already heard, heat waves kill more 
people than any other natural disaster, and--yet FEMA (Federal 
Emergency Management Agency) still doesn't recognize it as a 
natural hazard. A lesser-known fact is that it is a 
discriminating killer. We published work last year, and 
continue to build on this work, that shows that historically--
that historical segregation policies such as redlining, racial 
covenants, and exclusionary zoning that were promulgated in the 
1930's have enduring effects that, to this day, isolate 
communities of color, immigrants, and lower income folks into 
areas of cities that are upwards, that we've measured, of 20 
degrees Fahrenheit hotter than other parts of the city at the 
same time of day.
     Just this month we learned, as we were just hearing, that 
human caused climate change was directly implicated in the heat 
dome event in the Pacific Northwest, where, during that event, 
I measured temperatures that were 25 degrees warmer than other 
parts of the city. I've seen firsthand that, with increasingly 
hot days, the temperature differential also increases across 
the region. We can now say that those who died during the heat 
dome event were arguably the first climate related deaths in 
Oregon and Washington. Those who died lacked access to 
financial capital, social networks, and had aging or injured 
bodies. We knew who was going to die. I wrote a report in 2009 
stating as much, and yet local agency had--agencies had little 
capacity or understanding for taking swift action on this heat 
wave.
     These are--these, and most all other heat-related deaths, 
are preventable, as I think you'll hear other testimonies 
today, though we're not connecting the dots. I'd like to offer 
you my opinion about the three things that are needed for 
reducing excess mortality and morbidity from urban heat. First, 
because we know that people die in their households, we need 
hyperlocal data about where air temperatures vary at the scale 
of the city block. We--we've already mapped, with unprecedented 
detail, over 30 cities through a community-based civic science 
heat campaign, and most cities are lacking that evidence to 
take swift action. I'd like to propose supporting these cost-
effective and highly engaging campaigns so that communities can 
socialize the concept of heat as a silent killer, collect to 
necessary local data, and then bring--and then being able to 
take immediate action to move forward on infrastructure and 
social programs.
     Second, we need to integrate our understanding of heat 
with social and infrastructure vulnerabilities that urban 
regions face. U.S. cities generally are not designed for the 
kind of heat that we're starting to see. As our infrastructure 
ages, we have an opportunity to upgrade the systems that we 
depend on and make them more climate resilient, engaging 
community-based organizations in the process. Finally, one of 
the most important parts of addressing urban heat is a 
coordinated response. Currently most municipalities do not have 
a single office that coordinates heat action, when then falls 
upon nobody, making our ability to stave off heat-related 
mortality more challenging. The emerging evidence from the 
Pacific Northwest heat wave is a case in point. The same is 
true at the Federal level. While both NOAA and EPA have 
extensive resource for communities to understand urban heat, we 
still have very limited coordination across Federal bureaus. I 
would encourage you, in my last statement, to really think 
about connecting the dots across the Federal bureaus so that we 
can support local municipalities in taking immediate action on 
this silent killer. Thank you. I yield back.
     [The prepared statement of Dr. Shandas follows:]
     
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     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. And next is Dr. Guardaro.

           TESTIMONY OF DR. MELISSA GUARDARO, PH.D.,

                 ASSISTANT RESEARCH PROFESSOR,

                   HEALTHY URBAN ENVIRONMENTS

              & KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE FOR RESILIENCE,

       GLOBAL INSTITUTE OF SUSTAINABILITY AND INNOVATION,

                    ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

     Dr. Guardaro. Good morning, Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking 
Member Lucas, and Members to the Science Committee--of Science, 
Space, and Technology. Thank you inviting me today. My name is 
Melissa Guardaro, and I'm bringing testimony deeply informed by 
working in and learning from communities located in the 
Nation's hottest large metropolitan area, Phoenix, Arizona, 
where we are on the front lines for extreme heat.
     First, I want to break down this concept of extreme heat 
as two different yet similar issues, the urban heat island 
effect and climate change. The urban heat island effect is a 
result of urbanization, where the city retains heat during the 
day, and is slowly released at night. There are many urban heat 
islands within a city, with temperatures ranging as much as 13 
degrees or more. Strategies for reducing the urban heat island 
include increasing shading and implementing heat-smart urban 
design principles.
     Extreme heat is amplified by climate change. Average 
temperatures have been increasing steadily, and summer heat 
waves are predicted to be longer and hotter. Climate change 
reduction strategies include greenhouse gas emission reductions 
and energy efficiency measures, such as weatherization 
programs. It is important to address both the urban heat island 
effect and climate change together in a systematic manner. The 
principal concern, however, is how people experience heat as 
they move through their day. In other words, optimizing 
people's thermal comfort.
     Further, extreme heat needs to be addressed in two 
different time scales, immediate emergency action, especially 
during extreme heat events, to provide cooling for people, and 
long-term programs that constrain a warming future. Long-term 
strategies are meant to build a cooler environment, and 
intervention points could include infrastructure, buildings, 
urban forestry, regional collaborations, and city management, 
as you see management devoted exclusively to managing extreme 
heat in the cities of Phoenix and Miami.
     Extreme heat is not experienced equally within cities. 
Residents in low-income neighborhoods live in housing that is 
often energy inefficient, with aging cooling systems, and are 
challenged by energy insecurity as a greater proportion of 
their incomes are spent on electricity. Mobile home residents 
are especially heat vulnerable. A recent study by the Knowledge 
Exchange for Resilience revealed that in Maricopa County, 
Arizona mobile homes comprised 5 percent of the housing stock, 
yet accounted for 28 percent of the heat deaths. Affordable, 
livable housing is a critical factor for heat health safety. 
While poor and marginalized groups historically have suffered 
the most from climate impacts, they are often left out of the 
climate planning process. The Nature's Cooling System Project 
was implemented in three underserved neighborhoods to develop 
hyperlocal community heat action plans. This inclusive, 
storytelling-based planning process revealed different needs 
and wants between communities, despite relatively similar 
socioeconomic profiles.
     Federal investments are needed to prepare urban 
communities for extreme heat and to assist in the mitigation 
and adaptation to a warmer future. Similar to the Storm 
Prediction Center, a NOAA extreme heat center is needed to 
coordinate national efforts to understand and respond to 
impacts of extreme heat. Like the National Weather Service 
storm ready communities, NOAA can support the scaling up of the 
Healthy Urban Environments-funded Heat Ready Cities Program. 
This program is being piloted right now, and provides an 
evaluation tool to holistically manage how cities identify, 
prepare for, mitigate, track, and respond to the dangers of 
urban heat. There's a great need for coordination across 
jurisdiction to ensure that a regional, not a competitive, 
city-by-city approach is undertaken. Regional working groups 
can be established not only to develop solutions, but to 
develop critical social infrastructure, a necessary but often 
overlooked component for building momentum for transformational 
change.
     It is difficult to understand the human cost of heat 
emergencies without additional efforts toward tracking heat 
deaths. There are differences in how heat deaths are counted 
within the same period, resulting in the CDC reporting 618 heat 
deaths nationally, NOAA reporting less than 150, meanwhile in 
Arizona, where a more comprehensive heat health-health 
surveillance is an established practice, 520 deaths were 
reported in 2020. These discrepancies indicate that we are 
underestimating the scale of suffering due to extreme heat, and 
undercounting the cost to economic development, human health, 
and quality of life at a national scale. A research program 
that provides greater understanding of the economic impact of 
extreme heat could help to build the business case for extreme 
heat resilience investments. Coordination between EPA, NOAA, 
and FEMA to recognize extreme heat as a disaster could provide 
better prioritization both of emergency response and long-term 
mitigation adaptation efforts.
     We need to act now to provide more thermal comfort during 
extreme heat for the most vulnerable populations, and to tackle 
extreme heat in a systemic manner, acknowledging the internet-
connected nature of extreme heat contributing factors. Thank 
you again for giving me the opportunity to testify.
     [The prepared statement of Dr. Guardaro follows:]
     
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     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. Next we have Mr. Elkabetz.

               TESTIMONY OF MR. SHIMON ELKABETZ,

                  CEO, CO-FOUNDER, TOMORROW.IO

     Mr. Elkabetz. Thank you. Good morning, Chairwoman 
Sherrill, Ranking Member Bice, Chairwoman Johnson, and Members 
of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify before 
you today. It is an honor to be here among such distinguished 
panelists to discuss the rising problem of extreme heat in the 
U.S.
     So my name is Shimon Elkabetz. I was born and raised in 
Israel, and served in the Israeli Air Force for over 11 years, 
flying Apache helicopters. I've seen firsthand how weather 
forecasts without context can negatively impact operations in 
an elite military unit, and, in fact, I faced multiple near-
death experiences related to the weather. We founded 
Tomorrow.io as a Boston-based weather intelligence and climate 
security company because we wanted to improve forecasting, and 
also to bridge that gap between forecast and decisionmaking. 
We're working with customers ranging from Federal agencies, 
utilities, airlines, supply chain, on demand services, and 
professional sports teams.
     Extreme heat made worse by climate change is a real 
challenge that is impacting more people more frequently than 
ever before. Businesses are feeling the impacts too. Rail 
operators, for example, have to divert trains to avoid buckled 
tracks. Electric utilities have to meet increased demand to 
keep the lights and air conditioning on. Airlines, agriculture, 
shipping, and numerous other industries are significantly 
impacted by the heat. Improved weather forecasts and new tools 
to support decisionmaking are critical to minimizing the 
impacts of such events on people, infrastructure, and the 
economy.
     At Tomorrow.io we see three key components to improving 
forecasts and response to extreme heat, and many other weather 
and environmental hazards. First, I encourage the Committee's 
continued support of critical weather forecasting 
infrastructure, which means the observations, models, and 
computing that underpin all weather forecasts. Today's global 
weather enterprise is a great success story, also due to the 
bipartisan support of this Committee, yet work remains to be 
done.
     Second, I encourage the Committee's continued support of 
programs like NOAA's commercial weather data pilot, which has 
been successful thanks to the leadership of Ranking Member 
Lucas and the Members of this Committee, but also to broaden 
the scope, and to take advantage of expanding commercial 
capabilities. In our case, Tomorrow.io will be launching a 
first of its kind global constellation of small satellites 
equipped with precipitation radar. NOAA has indicated that one 
of its greatest challenges is the need to improve precipitation 
forecasts across timescales from weather to climate.
     Third, I encourage the Committee to continue to explore 
new ways the government can tap into private sector innovation. 
This includes more open-ended solicitations that allow industry 
to innovate the path to solving grand forecast challenges. This 
also includes enabling government agencies to leverage private 
sector technologies to increase their resilience to extreme 
weather and climate. To that end, Tomorrow.io has developed a 
unique platform that forecasts weather in high resolution, but 
more importantly then transform that weather data into 
actionable decisions for our customers.
     Chairwoman Sherrill, at this time I would like to share my 
screen to show the Committee how Tomorrow.io's weather 
intelligence platform helps users adjust their operations to 
deal with extreme heat and other weather phenomenon.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Without objection.
     Mr. Elkabetz. Thank you. I need to be able to share, but 
there are some technical difficulties. I will try again. 
Unfortunately, we have technical difficulties, so we'll 
continue. The Tomorrow.io weather intelligence platform 
displays high resolution global weather data and provides 
weather forecasts for all weather parameter, not just heat. And 
while we're continually improving the accuracy of our forecasts 
via innovative data sets and advanced modeling technology, what 
we learned is that focusing exclusively on accuracy in raw 
weather data is just not enough, since most individuals, 
businesses or governmental agencies have trouble understanding 
weather data and what it means. That's why we developed the 
concept of weather intelligence.
     So from our extensive experience helping customers, we've 
translated their use-cases into actionable business insights 
and best practices. We can help a trucking company on a route 
from New Jersey to Oklahoma by telling them when to delay or 
avoid portion of the route to avoid food from spoiling due to 
excessive heat. We can help a city like Dallas with 
precautionary measures specific to each city district, and even 
to a street, to ensure worker safety during extreme temperature 
event. So this is just a small example of how our capabilities 
today work. This will become even more powerful as our 
satellite constellation comes online.
     In conclusion, I want to thank this Committee for the 
time, and commend you for your leadership in addressing this 
important issue. Thank you again, and I look forward to 
answering your questions.
     [The prepared statement of Mr. Elkabetz follows:]
     
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     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. And, finally, Dr. 
Bernstein.

           TESTIMONY OF DR. AARON BERNSTEIN, MD, MPH,

       INTERIM DIRECTOR, THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE, HEALTH,

                  AND THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT,

           HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH,

           PEDIATRICIAN, BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL,

              FELLOW, ADRIENNE ARSHT--ROCKEFELLER

                  FOUNDATION RESILIENCE CENTER

     Dr. Bernstein. Thank you, Chairwoman, and thank you, 
Chairwoman Johnson, for your remarks, and Ranking Member Bice 
for yours, and for the opportunity to testify before all the 
Members of the Subcommittee today. I'd like to start my 
testimony with an anecdote that occurred during the hottest 
stretch of the hottest June in Boston's history, just this 
year. A mom approached me with a question, a totally reasonable 
question, which was, was it safe for her child to play outside? 
Now, that's a question that I imagine many of you who are 
parents had probably not thought twice about, unless perhaps 
your children grew up in very hard--hot parts of the country. 
But I'll tell you, from my experience, this is a question that 
most parents, certainly in the northern part of the country, 
have never really had to take seriously.
     I know full well what heat can do to a child's body. It 
can shut down any organ. Children with asthma will have a hard 
time breathing. Children with kidney disease may have their 
kidneys fail. Even children, adolescents in particular, who are 
depressed may in fact take their lives because of the heat, and 
there's evidence that suggests that heat may be stunting the 
growth of fetal development. But none of that actually enabled 
me to help this mother protect her child.
     At this late date, when we can already plainly see how 
human-caused climate change is influencing the severity of heat 
in our country, we simply do not have the knowledge we need to 
protect our most vulnerable citizens. Answers to questions like 
this mother's are urgent for a number of reasons, many of which 
my fellow panelists, as well as in the introductory remarks, 
have made clear. We know heat is lethal, and we know that heat 
waves are going to get more prevalent and severe in coming 
decades.
     Heat can harm us in surprising ways. We focus on 
mortality, which is a very worthy endpoint, but it's critical 
to recognize that heat has been associated with everything from 
life-threatening bacterial bloodstream infections, infant 
mortality, injuries not just in outdoor workers but in indoor 
workers, harm to our soldiers, and a variety of other ailments. 
The pace of warming is fast enough now that we can see 
additional harms occurring within a generation. Warming across 
the United States is happening such that, in a place like 
Cleveland, where it has been above 90, maybe--it'll be above 90 
as a heat index maybe a half dozen times this year, by 2050 
it's expected to be 20 or more without rapid action to 
decarbonize. In places like Houston, there are 10 days with a 
heat index over 100 today. By 2050, again, without robust 
action on climate, there may be 60.
     The second cause for urgency is that, while we have seen a 
tremendous improvement in heat-related mortality around the 
country, over the past few decades there's evidence that 
mortality trends are reversing, particularly in Southern and 
Southeastern States. Chairwoman Johnson's comments about Texas 
and people being prepared are absolutely true. We see a gross 
differential across the Southern to Northern States, but we 
also see alarming trends that, in some of the hottest parts of 
our country, mortality rates are going up, and especially in 
certain populations that are not typically thought to be at 
risk, like men between the ages of 45 and 64.
     Another knock-on effect of heat that needs to be watched 
carefully is the effect on electricity prices. In Portland, and 
other parts of the Northwest, prices went up by four-fold. That 
is essentially a regressive tax on the poor from heat events. 
We know that people who have air conditioning may not turn it 
on when it gets hot out, and price spikes in electricity can 
increase that. We've heard a great deal about the 
disproportionate effects of heat on certain populations in the 
country. We know that people of color, particularly Black 
Americans, are exposed on average to 2 degrees Celsius of 
temperature more heat than others, and that rates of mortality 
among people of color are manyfold greater than others, with 
Black Americans being three times more likely to die from the 
heat, and particularly indigenous peoples in this country six 
times more at risk.
     So we have a tremendous amount of stake for health, 
equity, and importantly our economy, and we can do much more. 
And, to start with, I would love to be able to tell the 
families I care for what temperatures warrant caution for their 
children's health. We can do that with support through NIH 
(National Institutes of Health), and support for NOAA, who can 
provide more localized, as we've heard, predictions around 
heat. We have to leverage the healthcare sector. We can use the 
resources in Medicare and Medicaid to incentivize providers who 
know the conditions that put people at risk for heat, have 
direct lines of communication to them. We can mobilize those 
resources to make sure that we get to our most vulnerable 
citizens.
     And, finally, I have to underscore that when we look in 
the solution space, we're very quick to ask how much 
implementation will cost, but we rarely take full accounting of 
the benefits of our actions, and urban greening is a 
particularly important example of this. Yes, urban greening can 
cool down cities, which we've heard are critical, but it also 
can improve air quality. It can reduce runoff that's associated 
with water-borne diseases. It can even improve mental health, 
and carry a host of other benefits. And so I urge you to 
consider, as you think about the path forward, to take a more 
full accounting of what's at stake for health and equity so 
that we can provide for the healthiest and most just future 
possible. Thanks.
     [The prepared statement of Dr. Bernstein follows:]
     
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     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you, Dr. Bernstein. At this 
point we'll begin our first round of questions, and I'll 
recognize myself for five minutes.
     The record-shattering heat dome in the Pacific Northwest 
revealed vulnerabilities in local infrastructure, with pavement 
buckling and cables melting. In my district in New Jersey, and 
neighboring districts, heat waves are usually accompanied by 
power outages. With extreme heat worsening across the U.S., I'm 
worried that Northeast infrastructure will suffer additional 
consequences. Dr. Shandas, how well do we understand 
infrastructure vulnerabilities in urban centers, and what kind 
of evidence base do we need to build to inform climate-
resilient infrastructure decisions?
     Dr. Shandas. Thank you, Chairwoman Sherrill. 
Infrastructure in our cities, as we well know, is designed with 
a specific range of climate in mind. Infrastructures made, and 
the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems 
that are in buildings, are made with this essentially boundary 
condition that allows buildings to operate in specific ways, 
roads, rail lines, et cetera. And when those boundary 
conditions are extended, that's where we start seeing cascading 
effects of infrastructure failure, like the heat dome, and the 
examples that were just brought up.
     And so often what we've done in our cities is build around 
those conditions, and when we are seeing these aberrations to 
that specific set of conditions, we are going to be seeing more 
and intense shifts that happen. In the Pacific Northwest I can 
say that many of us were holding onto--kind of holding on to 
ourselves, thinking what else is about to break as--because we 
all knew that the buildings, roads, cables, et cetera, were not 
designed with that particular level of heat in mind.
     And so our--generally speaking, our infrastructure is 
woefully inadequate to be able to manage the level of heat that 
we're seeing, and the concern that I have is the multiplicity 
of factors that are at play here. Heat is one thing, but then 
when, as some other panelists have identified, coupled with 
other serious climate-induced threats, like wildfire, a family 
will have to ask, do I open the windows at night, let the 
polluted air in as I sleep, and--that cooler polluted air as I 
sleep, or close those windows, and just really bake in my own 
home?
     Those are real big tradeoffs. Those are real tradeoffs 
within the infrastructure system that we have right now in many 
of our cities. And so the evidence base that we really need to 
be thinking about here is to think--is to get down to the place 
where individual households, businesses, municipal planners, 
public health agencies, can identify specific places where it 
might be very hazardous to be able to actually go during 
specific times of the day. We don't have that kind of 
granularity of information, where, if a parent is walking their 
child to school on a hot day, do they take Road X or Road Y, 
Road Y being 10, 15 degrees cooler for that asthmatic child, 
who might run into some serious health-related impacts taking 
Road X versus Road Y.
     So that level of granularity is an evidence base that we 
really need to get to, and groups like Tomorrow.io, groups like 
ours, that have been trying to narrowly define and get to a 
point where we can see that level of difference, will really 
advance our ability to make informed decisions about where the 
interventions will be most effective for the communities that 
are hardest hit. And so I will----
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. I'm sorry, I have limited 
time. I just want to get to one more question.
     Dr. Shandas. Yeah.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Dr. Guardaro, in addition to making 
built materials like rooftops and pavement more heat resilient, 
how can green spaces or other natural solutions help lower 
temperatures in urban areas?
     Dr. Guardaro. Green infrastructure can certainly help 
lower temperatures in areas, and you can have something like an 
increase in your tree canopy, and planting the right tree in 
the right place where people are to make this a people-centered 
approach would be effective in not only lowering temperatures, 
but also increasing people's thermal comfort. And then there 
are added benefits too that it cleans the air, green 
infrastructure helps with stormwater management, but we also 
must take into account a systems view of this. Green 
infrastructure needs to be balanced with water usage, and we 
need to make sure that we are using these planting principles 
in places where people are as they move through their day.
     There's been an interesting study by a colleague of mine 
that--it said regardless of whether or not the infrastructure 
lowers temperature, if people see a tree or green 
infrastructure, they actually feel cooler. So that's an area 
that we really could use a lot more research into, moving--
taking the information that we have about the air temperature 
and surface temperature, and turning that into how that impacts 
people's perception, and their feeling of thermal comfort. 
Thank you.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you so much, and my time has 
run out, so I am going to now recognize the Ranking Member of 
our Subcommittee, Mrs. Bice, for five minutes.
     Mrs. Bice. Thank you. In my State of Oklahoma I know a 
thing or two about extreme weather. In May of 1999 the 
strongest tornado ever recorded developed in Moore, Oklahoma. 
That said, technology has been developed as an early warning 
system for tornadoes that have saved thousands of lives across 
the country. Mr. Elkabetz, can you help us understand exactly 
what kind of data and weather patterns you look for when 
examining extreme heat predictions, and does the Federal 
Government, whether it's NOAA, NASA (National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration), or one of the service branches, have the 
tools to provide such data?
     Mr. Elkabetz. Thank you. So, from a technology and 
scientific perspective, actually forecasting extreme heat is 
less challenging. It is something that the agencies and the 
community are doing quite well. We do not necessarily 
differentiate, from a forecasting perspective, between 
forecasting heat or forecasting any other weather phenomenon. 
In that context, I do think that we need to think about the 
problem in two dimensions, the long-term and the short-term. In 
the long-term, yes, we need definitely to make sure our 
infrastructure can sustain climate change, and we need to 
improve the infrastructure to sense weather so we can predict 
it better. That's why Tomorrow.io is launching its satellites 
to cover the world with radars.
     But what I want to highlight is that what we're focusing 
on in the context of extreme heat and other phenomenon is the 
intelligence element, the insight. We are already in the era of 
consequences, and that takes us to the short-term. In the 
short-term we can do a lot to prevent damages and casualties by 
putting in place systems that translates the extreme heat into 
actionable insights. Any city, any education institution, from 
schools to universities, can have automation in place that 
tells exactly, on a weekly calendar, on a daily, hourly 
calendar, what to do, and what precautionary measures to take 
in order to avoid the damages. Because the knowledge, as Mr. 
Bernstein, and--has indicated is there. We already know the 
connection between the weather and the impact. Now we need to 
put the systems in place so we can be proactive, and this is 
what we're looking for, in terms of the patterns.
     Mrs. Bice. Thank you. Mr. Shandas, you talked a little 
earlier about the monitoring of temperatures in urban areas. 
Can you talk--speak to how you would anticipate being able to 
do that on a block-by-block basis? Although that could be 
helpful, I think scalable would be the question that I would 
have for you.
     Dr. Shandas. Thank you for the question. There are really 
two different ways, and complementary ways, to do block-by-
block measurements as we've done. One is something that we've 
used for a very long time, and that's satellite-based 
approaches. We have satellites already flying around the planet 
that describe at relatively coarse scales what is happening at 
a--within a city block. We can get 30 meter resolution, for 
example, from satellite imagery to describe what the surface 
temperature is in specific places.
     The other is to actually monitor air temperature, and 
that's the campaigns that we've been engaged at--engaged with, 
and it really has two components. One is a community-based data 
collection process, where we engage with environmental and 
social justice organizations within cities who might not have a 
direct interest or direct relevance to heat, and we work with 
the communities and the municipality to be able to go out and 
collect hundreds of thousands of measurements in one specific 
hot--heat day in a place. And that really socializes the 
concept, and yet gives us--and also really gives us very 
granular data, data that we haven't been able to see. It's 
unprecedented to this date.
     And that, combined with stationary sensors, where we can 
actually drive by and combine the both spatial and temporal 
variability, we can see, when a heat wave's coming, how one 
neighborhood or one city block is actually going to fare far 
worse than another particular part of the city. So that 
combination----
     Mrs. Bice. Thank you for that answer. My time is short, so 
I want to make sure I get one more quick question in. It's----
     Dr. Shandas. Sure.
     Mrs. Bice [continuing]. Interesting that you mention 
satellites. Mr. Elkabetz is actually talking about that in 
his--within his company. To you, Mr. Elkabetz, can you talk a 
little bit about how renewable energy companies can use weather 
data like Tomorrow.io offers to optimize operations, and how 
this can protect lives and property during weather events?
     Mr. Elkabetz. Definitely. The most--the biggest challenge 
they have is actually predicting the output, what they can 
generate on any given day, and that is directly correlated to 
the weather. So by having more accurate weather forecast down 
to the facility, they can better forecast that, and serve the 
customers.
     So when you think about extreme heat, if the supplier 
finds itself without enough capacity to support a grid, it can 
be a big challenge. We're supporting by providing more 
granular, finely tuned weather forecast for the needs of that 
renewable company, but moreover, we're providing them 
historical data so they can train their models and understand 
the relationship between the historical weather data and the 
historical production, and then use regularly, using machine 
learning, the forecast of the weather to understand the 
forecast of the generation.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you, and I'm afraid the 
gentlewoman's time has expired, so I'm now going to recognize 
the Chairwoman of the Full Committee, Ms. Johnson, for five 
minutes.
     Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. I'd like--I'd 
like to start with Dr. Shandas. Dr. Shandas, can you discuss 
how climate change will impact extreme heat events in the U.S. 
moving forward? Because it seems to me that, though we have 
looked at certain areas of the country, that it's getting to be 
more commonplace around the country. Some of the extreme heat 
has been affecting parts of the country where--such as Arizona, 
Northwest recently, Texas. Can you elaborate on how heat-prone 
parts of America already responding to heat stress, and how 
these lessons that we learned can be used from one city to 
another, municipality, through some way that the Federal 
Government can spread this information, especially through 
these communities?
     Because I believe that we're about to embark upon a deadly 
summer, and I realize that some areas of the country have not 
been as accustomed to this heat, but I think this heat could 
show up anywhere, frankly, with the global change that we're 
experiencing.
     Dr. Shandas. Thank you, Congresswoman Johnson. The 
relationship between climate change and heat is really getting 
far--getting more and more resolved, and what we're seeing is 
that this heat dome that we experienced in the Pacific 
Northwest not only broke records, but broke climate models. The 
climate models are relatively conservative in being able to 
look at the probabilities between what a greenhouse gas Earth--
greenhouse gas emitted Earth looks like versus one that's not, 
and that difference of probability has now become unequivocally 
clear about the role that climate change and greenhouse gases 
have played in the heat dome that we just experienced, and also 
for those other heat waves that we're likely to see coming this 
summer.
     In terms of the relationship between some parts of the 
country having had a lot more experience than others, I would 
really look to Dr. Guardaro for the work that's been going on 
in Arizona, and other parts that are really hot, though I will 
just quickly note that one of the challenges that we've noticed 
in doing this work nationally of looking at high resolution 
temperature is that regional coordination is very challenging 
right now. Individual municipalities are working largely on 
their own, often based on their own goodwill, and--to be able 
to get ahead of this. And right now they really don't see a lot 
of support coming from the Federal Government to be able to 
create a regional entity that could help different 
municipalities in a particular bioclimatic zone of the country 
get ahead of this--get ahead of these heat waves that are 
coming. And so part of what I would really underscore and 
emphasize is a need for creating regional networks of municipal 
heat planners that could learn from each other and share those 
lessons to--across the country. Dr. Guardaro, did you want to 
contribute to that question as well?
     Dr. Guardaro. Yes, thank you Dr. Shandas. Certainly it's 
very hot in Arizona, and we have been dealing with this for 
quite a long time, and the weather that we experience in 
Arizona is certainly going to be the normal for other regions 
in the country, so I think there are some really great lessons 
to be learned by how we approach heat.
     So, first of all, our buildings are really built with the 
idea that this is a hot climate. All housing is built with 
central air conditioning. When we build parks, we understand 
that we have to provide thermal comfort for people, and that 
doesn't just mean trees as shade. It also means other 
structures as well. When we look to have public transit, we 
make sure that our public transit is shaded, or that we're 
going to get shading in big public transit nodes.
     So the infrastructure is already, to some extent, a 
normal--the way that we approach it is just very normal. So 
you--when you build playgrounds, you would have a covering over 
it to shield the children from extreme heat. So my advice would 
be that other municipalities learn from what we've done in the 
region to address it. That said, I think that we still have a 
long way to go in Arizona to make sure that we're keeping 
people safe.
     And the other area that I think that the Federal 
Government could be really helpful is, as Dr. Shandas has said, 
helping to formulate these regional working groups that could 
help municipalities to not be in a competitive environment, 
because if one municipality has an urban forestry program, and 
the other one doesn't, and is rapidly paving over their city, 
they're working at cross purposes. So we have to make sure that 
we're not allowing for people to shop, if you will, areas 
within one region that have lesser regulations, or lesser 
political will to go and address increasing urban heat. Thank 
you.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you.
     Chairwoman Johnson. Thank--sorry.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Excuse me, Madam Chair?
     Chairwoman Johnson. Thank you very much. I yield back. My 
time is about to expire.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you, Madam Chair. And next the 
Chair recognizes Mr. Gimenez for five minutes.
     Mr. Gimenez. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no questions 
at this time. I yield my time back.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Mr. 
Feenstra for five minutes.
     Mr. Feenstra. Thank you, Chairman Sherrill, and Ranking 
Member Bice. Thank you to all our witnesses for the testimony, 
and sharing your extensive research on these experiences, and 
this important subject. The issue of severe weather is 
important to my district. Farmers are highly attuned to the 
seasonal weather changes and the weather patterns. The ability 
to prepare for extreme weather is very important.
     Mr. Elkabetz, just as elsewhere in the country, my 
district in Iowa has been experiencing persistently higher than 
average temperatures this summer, as well as moderate to severe 
drought conditions. These conditions require advance 
preparation for our farmers and our ranchers. You've described 
how your weather intelligent platform can monitor and provide 
operating recommendations for various sectors in your 
testimony. What sort of capabilities could the platform provide 
for our agricultural community, and specifically the supply 
chain when it comes to transporting livestock and perishable 
goods?
     Mr. Elkabetz. Thank you. I'm actually coming from family 
of farmers myself, so this topic is very dear to my heart as 
well. We're doing two things. One is improving the accuracy of 
weather forecasts in a way of basically creating more 
observations, and running our own models on HPC in the cloud. 
That enables us to fine tune the granularity of the forecast. 
But, as you indicated, the data itself--the raw data itself is 
not enough.
     The insights that our platform provides relates to 
planting, irrigation, fertilizing. For example--let's look at a 
simple example of spraying, and after 3 hours you have rain 
that washes the spray. That can be a significant damage. So the 
platform provides a weekly calendar with recommendations for 
the farmer about what to do, not necessarily what will be the 
weather, so this is very helpful. You can even automate 
agronomist algorithms into the software and get specific to 
species type of recommendations.
     In the context of supply chain, as you asked, we're 
working with supply chain and intermodal companies, including 
railways. We're helping with route efficiencies around when is 
the best time to do a drive and to avoid excess heat, and avoid 
the food spoilage, and areas of that kind.
     Mr. Feenstra. Thank you so much for that information. This 
is very critical to agriculture and the supply chain. This is 
for any one of the experts. My State is also a leader in wind 
energy, and my district specifically has a large wind energy 
footprint. In addition to precipitation droughts, heavy--or 
heat waves are also known to cause wind droughts. They can 
decrease wind and wind energy output. These type of droughts 
have affected wind energy in recent years in both the United 
States and Europe. With increased extreme heat, do we see these 
wind droughts increasing in frequency? If anyone could take 
that question, I would appreciate it. Anyone?
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Mr. Feenstra, we can take that 
question for the record and have our experts get you an answer.
     Mr. Feenstra. I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you, 
Chairwoman Sherrill. Finally, just one other question. Much of 
the testimony today has focused on the impact of--high 
temperatures have on urban populations, given that cities tend 
to have higher temperatures as compared to the surrounding 
rural areas. While I agree with the issues of urban heat, its 
significance concerning my district, especially in Sioux City 
and Ames, Iowa, I also worry about the unique challenges people 
in rural areas face. For example, rural populations are more 
spread out, meaning some are socially isolated, and have 
barriers to travel, and--for communal centered cooling. Have 
any of our witnesses given thought to this, and how we could 
not only promote heat-ready cities, but also heat-ready 
communities in my regions, in my rural areas?
     Dr. Guardaro. Thank you for that question. I think that 
while we are talking about urban heat, extreme heat is 
everywhere, and it's certainly in the rural areas as well. And, 
again, we need to look at that at two different time scales, so 
you have an immediate emergency concern. So when there's an 
extreme heat event, or if you have a period where it's 
extraordinarily hot, you need to provide cooling for people. 
And one of the ways to do that is to have a robust cooling 
center network, and there are examples within Arizona. 
Certainly the Heat Relief Network in Arizona is one such case, 
where you could be able to provide cooling.
     And even though people are spaced out, you could also have 
a network of people who are helping. So, in our case, in the 
Heat Relief Network, we've had all sort of community members 
step up, including having a utility company pay for Lyft rides 
to cooling centers. So that's a short-term solution. And long-
term solutions are also to provide cooling spaces for people 
along the way. I see that I'm out of time, but to provide 
cooling spaces for people, and handle long-term mitigation and 
adaptation.
     Mr. Feenstra. Thank you. Thank you so much for your 
comments, and I yield back.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. The Chair now recognizes 
Mr. Kildee for five minutes.
     Mr. Kildee. Thank you, Chairwoman Sherrill, for holding 
this really important hearing. I've been sort of toggling back 
and forth. I've got lots of things going on today, so if my 
question is redundant, I apologize for that.
     Over seven years ago, in my hometown, a water crisis 
emerged. My hometown is Flint, Michigan. Children were affected 
by this crisis, exposed to high levels of lead, which we know 
poses really significant health risks to kids, particularly in 
their development. What was not as well known during that water 
crisis is that there was an outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease 
in Flint as a result of the crisis.
     Michigan again, sadly, is experiencing a surge in 
Legionnaire's Disease. This week, in fact, the Michigan 
Department of Health and Human Services announced that 
Legionnaire's Disease cases during the first two weeks of July 
were up 569 percent from the same period a year ago. Michigan 
officials attribute this rise in cases to rain, flooding, and 
warmer weather, warmer temperatures in particular having an 
impact. Environmental health and climate experts in Michigan 
have been warning that climate change, causing more extreme 
weather, more volatile water cycles, allows for an environment 
for water-borne bacteria, like legionella bacteria, to thrive. 
And so, Dr. Bernstein, I wonder if you could speak to ways in 
which climate change, particularly extreme heat, can provide a 
breeding ground for bacteria and water-borne illnesses such as 
Legionnaire's Disease?
     Dr. Bernstein. Sure. Thank you for that question, 
Representative Kildee. So, as you mentioned, extreme weather is 
associated with water-borne diseases. That's particularly true 
in places like Representative Feenstra's district in Iowa, and 
particularly the Mississippi Watershed, where we see heavy--so 
baked Earth, followed by heavy downpours, causing runoff that 
causes bacteria and viruses to get in the water, that's 
probably the clearest signal that we have in this country of 
climate change effects on disease.
     We also see in coastal areas, so in Congressman Gimenez's 
district of Miami, the risks of harmful algal blooms, red 
tides, brown tides, is affected by heat. Most of the heat of 
climate change is going to the oceans. Those aren't just 
problems for marine organisms. There are actually direct toxins 
to people who may be in those waters, and importantly they 
aerosolize, so people who have breathing problems breathe those 
in, get sick. Heat is a major issue for wildfire smoke, we 
know, but often through a pathway that involves diseases of 
trees. So we see the movement of these pests on trees, bark 
beetles in the West. They kill the trees, make them more 
vulnerable. That air pollution is a major driver of respiratory 
infections. This is a pathway of heat leading to deaths. We saw 
a lot of evidence around the COVID pandemic that people had 
been breathing polluted air were more likely to die. That's not 
just true with COVID. That's true every winter with the flu, 
and other respiratory conditions.
     Heat, of course, makes it possible for other pests to 
move, like the ticks that transmit diseases like Lyme Disease. 
We've certainly seen that in this country already. And I think 
critically, and one area I would underscore here, is heat is a 
major threat to healthcare. We know that heat is driving power 
outages, and hospitals and clinics, particularly clinics that 
are in rural areas, and hospitals in rural areas, are not 
equipped to deal with power outages very well, and that means 
that people who have infections are more likely to have bad 
outcomes. And I think we really need to get our heads around 
what heat means to healthcare through research.
     Mr. Kildee. I was going to ask that. Do you--have you come 
up with, or can you suggest specific areas of research where we 
could explore further the linkage between heat and disease 
outbreaks?
     Dr. Bernstein. Yes, it's a critical piece. I actually 
wanted to pick up on something Representative Feenstra said. 
You know, to be perfectly blunt, we don't know how to protect 
rural Americans from the heat. Knowledge, folks, is not going 
to save us. We can have all--and I'm a big proponent of 
knowledge here. But we can have all the data we want about 
heat, but if we don't know how to implement it, and whether 
those strategies work, it ain't very helpful. So we have to get 
information about what temperatures matter to health, but we 
need much better understanding of what kinds of interventions 
matter. So that means we've got to get CDC to work with NOAA to 
implement and assess these things.
     We need the healthcare system--we spent $4 trillion on 
healthcare, by our own estimates. A quarter of that is on fully 
preventable diseases. That means we've got a trillion bucks 
we're throwing down the drain, folks. Can we please put some of 
that to invest in protecting our citizens from heat, without 
spending any more money? So there's a huge need to get a handle 
on this. One last point here is heat's going up, and rates of 
medication use in Americans are going through the roof, and you 
know what? The evidence we have is that mediations may be 
increasing heat risk. So, again, you can know a lot about heat 
exposures, but a person on medication would be far more likely 
to get sick. The health system knows that. Public health 
agencies don't. We better understand whether people like me, 
who are prescribing drugs to everybody else, are causing 
unnecessary harm in heat events.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. I'm afraid the gentleman's 
time has expired----
     Mr. Kildee. Thank you.
     Chairwoman Sherrill [continuing]. And so I next turn to 
Mr.----
     Mr. Gonzalez. I can go.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. OK. The Chair now recognizes Mr. 
Gonzalez for five minutes.
     Mr. Gonzalez. Thank you, Chairwoman Sherrill, and Ranking 
Member Bice, for holding this hearing today, and to our 
witnesses for joining us.
     It's clear extreme heat waves can have serious societal, 
ecological, and economic impacts, and with the recent events in 
the Pacific Northwest, it's essential that we think critically 
about how we prepare for the future and mitigate these risks. I 
think we--we're all seeing now fires every year. It's becoming 
a routine part of life on the West Coast, and it's something 
that I think we should all be very concerned with. Can't 
imagine raising a young kid out there right now, and knowing 
that, you know, you're going to have these wildfires, and all 
the smoke risks that come with that.
     Mr. Elkabetz, your company is at the center of this new 
effort to aggregate data, model it, and ultimately relay it 
clients in a user-friendly way. Have you faced any obstacles in 
helping clients consume and respond to the information that 
your company provides them?
     Mr. Elkabetz. Thank you. So definitely part of our 
innovation comes from things that were real challenges as we 
engage with customers. So at the beginning of our way, we 
innovated mostly around how to make weather and forecasts more 
hyperlocal. Very fast, when we engage with customers, we 
learned that about 90 percent of the businesses, based on our 
estimation, are not really equipped to understand raw weather 
data. Even if I give them the AQI (air quality index) for 
tomorrow at 2 o'clock p.m., the most accurate way, they will 
not necessarily be able to do that, and that has a few 
components.
     The first is, of course, the translation of the weather 
data to actionable insights. We're working with football clubs, 
and with leagues and such, around when to do the practice, when 
is the best time to do that, what kind of recommendations to 
give for the audience in the stadium, and such. But the more 
interesting element is how do you automate it? How do you make 
sure that you truly give the right information in the right 
time to the relevant audience so they can make decisions? 
Because, even if you have all the knowledge that Dr. Bernstein 
indicated, there's still this gap between making sure that the 
right individual gets the decision in the right time, and 
that's what we're focused on.
     And we developed that interface in two ways. One, for 
visual, basically a person that looks at a screen and makes the 
decision, but also via data feed, so we can integrate to other 
systems. And other systems can be everything from street 
lights, to sewage systems, to IoT (internet of things) devices. 
So they can be proactive to the risks of weather, and we make 
decisions ahead of what's coming. And that's how we're solving 
this problem for our customers, and we can solve it for 
municipalities, government agencies, and more.
     Mr. Gonzalez. Thank you. And then has your company 
partnered with any local or State governments, and if so, are 
there any issues that are limiting their ability to take action 
on these warnings when they come through?
     Mr. Elkabetz. Yeah. An example is the city of Quincy here 
in Boston, where they suffer in the summer from heat events 
like we're just talking about, in the winter from snow removal 
challenges, or anything related to resource allocation during 
storms. They've been finding the software pretty useful. And 
we're working also with governmental agencies, like the U.S. 
Air Force, and others. I don't see regulatory issues around 
using those insights at the moment, and I'm glad that it is the 
case, and we hope that it will continue in such a way.
     Mr. Gonzalez. Thank you. And then one of--one gap in our 
understanding of extreme heat is your lack of ability to 
predict what the maximum high temperature a region may 
experience is, and how long that high temperature can persist. 
What progress has Tomorrow.io made in addressing this issue, 
and how, if at all, can Federal agencies help?
     Mr. Elkabetz. So scientifically we do not have evidence 
that we were able to improve that specific element. However, we 
are working on technologies around sensing and around modern 
modeling, and the modeling we're working on together with the 
other partners. We're basically the architects of the EPIC 
program, and we're hoping that by putting the models in modern 
cloud it will help the community further innovate, and maybe 
find the solutions to improving the modeling. On the----
     Mr. Gonzalez. Thank you. Then----
     Mr. Elkabetz [continuing]. Data, which is really the input 
for those models--let's look at the West Coast, right? This is 
where we're talking about, in terms of the wildfires. The 
forecast for the West Coast is highly dependent on what's 
happening in the Pacific 2 days ago, 3 days ago, and before 
that. We know that the oceans are blind to active radars, and, 
as a result, we do not have accurate monitoring of storms--
tropical storms from hurricanes, to cycles, and typhoons, and 
others over the oceans. Without that, the forecast of any 
weather parameter is highly limited. So by covering the entire 
world with active radars, we're going to improve the 
forecasting skills by a lot, including the problem you just 
mentioned.
     Mr. Gonzalez. Great. Well, I know we all wish you luck in 
that endeavor, and I appreciate your testimony, and yield back. 
Thank you.
     Mr. Elkabetz. Thank you so much.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. The Chair now recognizes 
Ms. Bonamici for five minutes.
     Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much, Chair Sherrill and 
Ranking Member Bice, and thank you especially to our witnesses 
for joining us for this very timely hearing.
     The unprecedented heat wave in the Pacific Northwest last 
month was a natural disaster that tragically claimed the lives 
of 116 Oregonians, and many more across the region. My heart 
goes out to their families and friends. Most heat related 
deaths are preventable, and we owe it to their families and 
friends to take action that will prevent further loss of life. 
We must recognize that the devastating heat dome 
disproportionately affected vulnerable communities, like the 
low-income neighborhoods that became heat islands, surrounded 
by concrete and excessive emissions from highways, seniors who 
lacked air condition and fans to stay cool--not all houses in 
the Pacific Northwest have air conditioning--and the 
communities of color who lacked access to green spaces to 
provide adequate shade because of racist historical redlining 
policies.
     State emergency management officials acknowledge that 750 
people who called an information line during the heat wave were 
unable to connect with an operator for assistance because of a 
staffing shortage. Public transit was suspended because the 
light rail couldn't withstand extreme temperatures, and that 
prevented people from getting rides to cooling centers.
     So, Dr. Shandas, I know you've been researching these 
issues for decades, and really raising the alarm about urban 
heat and its deadly consequences for vulnerable communities, 
and I sincerely hope that my colleagues on this Committee will 
join me in heeding your urgent call in committing to bold, 
comprehensive, science-based climate action. And I'm grateful 
for your work. I know you've collected local heat data to raise 
awareness about the disparities for historically marginalized 
communities, and in a recent report I saw that you and your son 
measured an air temperature of 124 degrees in Southeast 
Portland, I believe in the Lents neighborhood last month. That 
was 25 degrees higher than the measurement around the same time 
in more prosperous neighborhoods. How can this hyperlocal data 
help to confirm investments that will improve the resilience of 
our communities for future extreme heat events?
     Dr. Shandas. Thank you, Representative Bonamici. It's 
wonderful to see you. And this work has really about three 
parallel lines, and I'll try to summarize them really briefly. 
One is we have many different ways to measure heat. It might 
seem really obvious in talking about heat, but as we continue 
to unpack this, and think about the satellite approach, think 
about the ground-based approach, community members, as well as 
municipal planners and State agencies, are really grappling 
with what is the ``best'' way to measure heat. And so we are 
deep in this process of trying to reconcile a lot of the 
different approaches that are currently being used, so that's a 
scientific foundation upon which decisions can be really 
promulgated.
     And second is really to base these measurements and the 
interpretation with the communities that are hardest hit with 
this--with extreme heat. And often communities that are hardest 
hit are often saying, I've weathered a heat event before, or, 
it gets hot and I just, you know, deal with it, and that's 
where we start seeing, particularly in areas like the Pacific 
Northwest, communities just not well prepared, not really 
socialized with the understanding of the implications of heat. 
And so places where they can get this information, and also be 
engaged in the interpretation of what's happening locally, is 
essential. So really grounding this in the community and civic 
science approach is something we've been--as a second parallel 
track.
     And then the third is to really think about, as I 
mentioned a little bit earlier, a coordination network within 
particular regions of the country. For example, the Pacific 
Northwest, we've been talking to folks from Northern Washington 
State, over to Idaho, down to southern parts of Oregon to 
really get a handle on what does it mean to be embarking upon 
the heat mitigation strategies, and understanding what's 
effective in this region, which may be very different than 
what's effective in the Southwest, in the Southeast, the 
Northeast, the Midwest, et cetera. And so we really want to 
create these regional hubs of heat practitioners, heat 
planners, and public health agencies that can really bring all 
of this kind of----
     Ms. Bonamici. Dr. Shandas, I don't want to interrupt you, 
but I have a few seconds left, and----
     Dr. Shandas. Yeah.
     Ms. Bonamici [continuing]. You've led me to my last 
question, which is, where you--you emphasize that coordinated 
response. What steps could this Committee and Congress take to 
improve coordination at the Federal level, and what are the 
current gaps in sharing Federal resources with local, State, 
and tribal governments? How can we close those gaps?
     Dr. Shandas. I would--there is already a mechanism in 
place. I would really point us to the National Integrated Heat 
Health Information System. That group is already bringing 
together several different agencies, including FEMA, EPA, NOAA, 
CDC to really address this coordinated approach. And if we see 
the Federal Government really bringing their coordinated 
attention to this, I think what local municipalities will start 
to do is also reduce the silos that are currently in place in 
different bureaus, and start to do more coordinated effort, 
which is really at the core of a lot of developing preventable 
approaches to heat deaths.
     Ms. Bonamici. Thank you so much, Dr. Shandas. I see my 
time has expired. I yield back. Thank you, Madam Chair.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. And the Chair recognizes 
Mr. Casten for five minutes.
     Mr. Casten. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to our 
witnesses. I must say, there's a part of this whole hearing 
that makes me very sad, and it makes me sad because pre-COVID I 
think the three biggest days for single day above-baseline 
mortality events in the United States were 9/11, at nearly 
3,000 people, Hurricane Katrina, at 1,800, and the No. 3 was 
the 1995 Chicago heat wave that killed 700 people. And so much 
of what Dr. Shandas was talking about--what makes me sad is 
that this isn't new, right? In 1995 the people who died were 
the least among us. The--it was the people who couldn't afford 
air conditioning, people who didn't have social networks 
checking in on them. Since that time inequality has increased. 
Since 1991 we've emitted 50 percent of all the CO2 
we have ever emitted as a species, since we first learned how 
to make a fire a million years ago. And, you know, we're 
talking a good game, but at some point future generations are 
going to watch our feet and ask if we moved. I'm sorry to be 
sad and bring us down, but I'm sad.
     Dr. Shandas, I want to maybe use that to riff a little bit 
to you. There's--University of Chicago, the EPIC, Energy Policy 
Institute, has done this really interesting work that I'm sure 
you're familiar with on the social cost of carbon, and how 
these things change regionally. And, as you have looked around 
to see where these inequities exist, where the costs are, there 
are some of the costs that are functions of social policy 
questions, where do we plant trees, what do we do for building 
codes, and we can fix those legislatively. There are some of 
those costs that are just geographical. There's a reason we 
don't build cities in Death Valley, there's a reason we don't 
zone homes on flood plains. And as temperatures rise in areas 
to Death Valley levels, as flooding gets more common, some of 
these issues are only solved by relocation.
     As you've looked at your data, you know, following up on 
what Congresswoman Bonamici asked about, sort of the hyperlocal 
questions, have you thought about how to quantify to what 
degree are the solutions we should be thinking about social 
questions, and to what degree do we need to be--is it more cost 
effective to think about providing people with opportunities to 
relocate?
     Dr. Shandas. Yes. So the extent to which we've looked at 
this, relocation has been really brought up a lot around sea 
level rise and managed retreat discussions that are active in 
the literature, and we have yet to see those implemented in any 
substantial way in any parts of the country. We've heard 
proposals with various indigenous tribes, for example, in the 
Northwest, like the Quileutes community in Northwestern 
Washington that are considering retreating from that particular 
Pacific coastal zone.
     But in terms of heat, the main discussions that have been 
happening is really around the social policy, and around the 
potential interventions that could be effective. Right now we 
have a lot of modeling data about what specific interventions 
might ameliorate temperatures at the city block level, or even 
at the district level, neighborhood level, yet we don't have 
very much empirical evidence on that right now. We are 
embarking on a project with the Urban Land Institute to 
actually look at, for example, buildings that are being 
designed and developed, and monitoring those in such a way to 
see whether there are specific things, like green roofs, green 
walls, whether there's blue-green or water features, whether 
there are specific geometries or configurations of that 
building that could actually ameliorate temperatures and study 
that empirically.
     So we are embarking upon that right now. There are some 
really off the shelf things, like we've already heard from Dr. 
Guardaro and others, about green infrastructure as being a 
really important first step to this--to achieving this. So the 
social policy questions are really at the core of it, and 
whether communities are really going--taking a step into this 
will really depend on what Federal Government guidance is given 
to----
     Mr. Casten. I'm sorry, I want to just interrupt, because I 
want to get one more question for Dr. Bernstein, but I do just 
want point out that a lot of the areas that you see this are 
areas where, because of redlining, it's concentrated, so there 
is a reverse redlining question at some level.
     Dr. Bernstein, you're--you mentioned some of the issues 
around things less than death, increased workplace fatality. We 
had Dr. Jisung Park testify exactly to this issue on the Select 
Committee on the Climate Crisis earlier this week, and how 
they're starting to see some evidence of increased, you know, 
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) issues at 
rising heat. Any quick comments in the little time we've got 
left on areas for further research on that front?
     Dr. Bernstein. Sure. We need to very much understand much 
more so for rural areas than we do urban areas. Most of the 
data we have is in urban areas. We need to focus on the ties 
to--between the economic effects. So we see the impairments in 
economic productivity, the losses in GDP, and--as a result of 
heat, and those get compounded by individual effects from heat. 
So the same places where the economy's getting hit by heat, we 
see compounded effects upon individuals. But critically, again, 
we need to focus on understanding what we can do to mitigate 
heat. And, Representative Casten, I also would underscore that 
it's hard to have this conversation, and talking about all we 
can do to essentially adapt to heat, when it's very clear that 
the single best thing we can do to address all of the above is 
to prevent greenhouse gas emissions in the first place. That'll 
be far more effective than hyper-localized data. That'll be far 
more effective than me writing prescriptions, or telling people 
how to stay out of the heat, from both a----
     Chairwoman Sherrill. I'm afraid the gentleman's----
     Dr. Bernstein [continuing]. Outcome standpoint----
     Chairwoman Sherrill [continuing]. Time has expired.
     Dr. Bernstein [continuing]. And a cost----
     Mr. Casten. Hear hear, and I yield back.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you, and next I'd like to 
recognize Mr. Crist for five minutes.
     Mr. Crist. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank to 
the--thanks to all the witnesses for being with us today. In 
cities across the country the summer of '21 is off to the 
hottest start on record. Dangerously high temperatures have 
hammered the West, worsening existing drought and wildlife 
conditions, and leading to nearly 200 heat related deaths. In 
my home State of Florida, our sunshine may bring welcome warmth 
in the winter, but it can be pretty darn hot in the summer. 
Just last month, as a matter of fact, the heat index in Miami 
reached 108 degrees, prompting the National Weather Service to 
issue a hazardous weather outlook. And a recent study from the 
University of Florida found that heat related deaths occur 
year-round in Florida.
     This national problem requires a national response. That's 
why I'm working with our colleague in the Senate, Senator 
Markey of Massachusetts, to introduce the Preventing Heat 
Illness and Deaths Act. This bill would formalize and expand 
the National Integrated Heat Health Information System, as well 
as establish an inter-agency committee to oversee Federal 
efforts to address extreme heat. Dr. Shandas, could you please 
speak to the importance of developing an integrated Federal 
approach to reducing the impacts of extreme heat?
     Dr. Shandas. Sure, and I'll be cautious, as I took up too 
much time last time. The need for coordination has never been 
greater in this particular realm. I have witnessed far too many 
times a conversation with one Federal agency that then gets 
replicated with a different Federal agency, and so I'm really 
seeing the--kind of the split and differences across Federal 
agencies, and the lack of conversation and coordinated approach 
that's happening even within agencies that are down the street 
from each other physically. And so part of what I think NIHHIS 
can really bring to the table is connect the human health 
component, which is CDC, bring together NOAA, which is the 
climate science entity, EPA, which really can move on policy 
and really support local communities in taking action, and, of 
course, FEMA, who is there to be able to identify specific 
hazards and bring resources to the table.
     So the coordinated approach would really lead from a 
research base into an understanding of what the potential 
implications are for heat, and then leading to the policy and 
the investments that could really safeguard a community. So 
NIHHIS is established, it's in place, and it really is about 
how do we move forward? And I really applaud your and Senator 
Markey's bill for moving that particular entity forward. I 
yield back.
     Mr. Crist. Thank you. That's very kind of you, Doctor. 
Also I'd like to know, how could the National Integrated 
Health--Heat Health, rather, Information System be best 
leveraged as a mechanism and entity for improving coordination?
     Dr. Shandas. So in--specifically I think there are three 
things that can--or two things that can happen that come to 
mind. One is--we've talked about information. We're still--
NIHHIS can hold the information from a variety of different 
sources. That's an essential component to this, is, while it's 
not enough, it is important to be able to gather, synthesize, 
and, as we've heard before, put the information in ways that 
are really accessible, understandable, by local municipalities. 
There's all kinds of techniques and ways in which we've 
developed communication strategies for doing that kind of work. 
Excuse me.
     And second is the idea of being able to be a lot more 
focused on the implementation side of it. What are the 
strategies that are working in specific parts of the region? 
How can NIHHIS take what we've learned from the Southwest, for 
example, and help the Northwest better adapt to heat? How can 
we find ways of what's working in the Southeast, in your part 
of the country, and help the Mid-Atlantic better prepare for 
heat? And so these are both the information, as well as the 
implementation dimensions, I think, central to what NIHHIS is 
going to be able to bring to the table.
     Mr. Crist. Thank you very much. And then finally, Dr. 
Bernstein, what kind of steps would you like to see the Federal 
Government take to address the rising health risk of extreme 
heat?
     Dr. Bernstein. Thank you for that question. I would love 
to see the Federal Government utilize the healthcare dollars 
we're spending to incentivize healthcare systems to do more to 
keep people safe. Through Medicare, for instance, there now are 
incentives to provide high quality care for various conditions, 
which are largely targeted at preventing readmissions. We know 
that heat is a major driver of hospitalization emergency use, 
but yet we don't incentivize providers to act. So we could use 
this massive investment of taxpayer dollars in the healthcare 
system, which is often used for preventable problems like heat, 
to get the healthcare system engaged on this problem.
     My big concern with our current response right now, which 
involves heat alerts and cooling centers, is whether they 
actually protect the most vulnerable. And the healthcare 
system, while not perfect in getting to the most vulnerable, 
between federally health--federally qualified health centers, 
Medicare and Medicaid recipients, there are avenues to get to 
the folks who are most likely to be harmed who may be least 
likely to get heat alerts or information from other data 
sources.
     Mr. Crist. Thank you, Doctor, and thank you, Madam Chair. 
I yield back.
     Chairwoman Sherrill. Thank you. Before we bring the 
hearing to a close, I want to thank our witnesses for 
testifying before the Committee today. The record will remain 
open for two weeks for additional statements from the Members 
and for any additional questions the Committee may ask of the 
witnesses. The witnesses are excused, and the hearing is now 
adjourned.
     [Whereupon, at 11:40 a.m., the Subcommittee was 
adjourned.]

                               Appendix I

                              ----------                              


                   Answers to Post-Hearing Questions




                   Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Dr. Vivek Shandas

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Responses by Dr. Melissa Guardaro

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Responses by Mr. Shimon Elkabetz

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Responses by Dr. Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH

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