BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Last month's deadly heat wave in the Northwest underscored the need to reduce carbon emissions, but advocates want to ensure low-income communities aren't left behind.

Rose Lathrop, program director for Sustainable Connections, based in Bellingham, said electrifying buildings is key, since they are the fastest-growing source of carbon pollution in Washington state.

"That's up 50% from 1990, and that's due to gas and oil appliances like furnaces, hot-water heaters and stoves," Lathrop outlined. "So the more of this infrastructure that we place inside of homes, the more likely we're going to see internal gas leaks."

Lathrop noted appliances like gas stoves also negatively affect indoor air quality, which is an even greater concern during heat waves when people need to spend more time inside. A recent study found communities of color are disproportionately exposed to heat in cities across the country.

She added replacing gas infrastructure is difficult in older residential buildings, and will become a growing issue for low-income communities.

"How do we electrify those in a way that doesn't harm our low-income communities, and in fact should support them and help them through a positive transition?" Lathrop asked. "And at the end of the day, it's going to take funding."

Lathrop pointed out local governments and Washington state are moving to reduce pollution from buildings, but believes policy without funding will not be effective. She argued the transition away from the use of fuels such as natural gas in buildings needs to be under way now.

"All of our new construction should already be zero-carbon construction," Lathrop asserted. "It's easy enough to do. We have the technology, and we have the capacity to do it."

As a West Eugene wood-treatment facility continues the process of reducing operations, activists are seeking accountability for contamination that remains in the community.

Following a history of fines and hundreds of complaints each year from Bethel-Danebo neighborhood residents, in January JH Baxter announced it would "mothball" its facility.

But Travis Knudsen, public affairs manager with the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, said dioxin contamination from the facility remains.

"The JH Baxter that was operating in 2021 is not the same facility that was operating in the 1940s or even into the 1970s and 1980s," said Knudsen. "And so that dioxin contamination is believed to be legacy from longer periods ago."

The Environmental Protection Agency says dioxins are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system, and can also interfere with hormones.

Knudsen said community advocate organizations have been helpful to his agency as it investigated complaints in the Bethel-Danebo neighborhood - where for decades low-income residents have, in some cases, lived across the street from heavy industry.

"There's a group of community members and local advocates," said Knudsen, "who have said we're really interested in this facility and we want to be a part of the conversation of regulatory intervention. We just had our 14th meeting."

Dylan Darling, public affairs specialist with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, said his agency is still investigating how much dioxin contamination exists, and how it can be removed.

"The investigation and cleanup began at the facility itself, and then has expanded into the nearby neighborhood," said Darling. "DEQ is in the process of having soil sampled to better understand the extent of the contamination, and is also planning to clean up some of the yards at homes that are near the wood treatment facility."

Darling said the issue of dioxin contamination is complex, requiring the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to work closely with the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, the Oregon Health Authority and the City of Eugene to protect and improve public health and the environment in the Bethel-Danebo neighborhood.

Wisconsin has a new Office of Environmental Justice, which is tasked with centering equity and fairness as the state proceeds with a new clean-energy strategy.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports the heaviest impacts of climate change typically fall on underserved communities who are "least able to prepare for and recover from heat waves, poor air quality, flooding and other impacts," a disparity the new office will be tasked with addressing.

Gov. Tony Evers said at a news conference Friday the office will work across state agencies to ensure an equitable response to climate change.

"The cost of doing nothing is far too high," Evers asserted. "We can't ignore the reality facing communities across our state any longer."

A report by the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts found extreme storms and flooding are among the most common cases of extreme weather in Wisconsin. Frequent and extreme flooding can contaminate drinking water and lead to outbreaks of waterborne illnesses.

According to the governor's office, the state's new Clean Energy Plan could create more than 40,000 new jobs in the state by 2030.

Pamela Ritger de la Rosa, Milwaukee program director and staff attorney for Clean Wisconsin, said it is important those jobs are also available to workers from disadvantaged and low-income communities, a goal she said the new Office of Environmental Justice will help achieve.

"Investing in these changes could really help to solve the economic crises that many individuals in our underserved communities are living with every day," Ritger de la Rosa contended. "Because these are jobs that can't be outsourced and that can't be automated."

Evers previously proposed the Office of Environmental Justice in his 2021-2023 state budget, but the proposal was stripped out by Republicans in the Legislature. This time around, the governor bypassed the Legislature by using an executive order to establish the office. According to the governor, the office will be led by a yet-to-be-named director of environmental justice and a chief resilience officer.

The latest American Cancer Society research estimates more than 139,000 Texans will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in 2022. One of the "hot spots" for industrial air pollution is the Port Arthur area, where residents are voicing their health concerns.

Southeast Texas is home to three large oil refineries and other industrial facilities. These businesses are touted as the sources of living-wage jobs.

John Beard Jr., founder and CEO of the Port Arthur Community Action Network (PACAN), said the pollution they emit can be fatal to the residents of the mostly Black community. He calls it a "sacrifice zone."

"We challenge any and all expansions of the industry -- whether it be by pipeline or new petrochemical facilities, or LNG facilities -- we challenge their air permits," Beard explained. "We also challenge them, with regard to their federal permitting on the environmental level and on the environmental justice level, as well as the community impact."

PACAN filed a complaint last August with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against the Oxbow Carbon plant, which releases as much as 22 million pounds of sulfur dioxide into Jefferson County air. The complaint has not yet been resolved.

A recent ProPublica analysis lists Port Arthur as one of more than 1,000 hot spots in the nation for cancer-causing industrial pollution.

The ProPublica research found pollution levels of each individual facility might be "acceptable," but the combined output of multiple facilities increases cancer risk.

Beard wants the county and state to stop downplaying those risks.

"We were declared a 'cancer cluster' in 2010 by the U.S. EPA," Beard pointed out. "Basically, Port Arthur then was declared a showcase environmental city. Being given this title, we were also told that Port Arthur had more than twice the state and national average of cancer, heart, lung and kidney diseases."

The cancer mortality rate for Black residents of Jefferson County is about 40% higher than for Texans overall, according to the Environmental Integrity Project.