Forty million Americans are sweating through extreme heat warnings across the central and southern United States, and the establishment press is using the misery to push the same fossil-fuel blame line — while ignoring that the green energy policies they champion make it harder for working people to afford the air conditioning they're told to seek out.

The National Weather Service had at least 40 million people under extreme heat warnings Sunday, with heat indexes above 100F stretching from Minnesota to Mississippi and west into southern California and Nevada. Parts of the Southwest were expected to hit 120F. Rapid City, South Dakota, notched an all-time record of 112F on Saturday. A horse race in Shakopee, Minnesota, was canceled.

That's the weather. Here's the propaganda: both the Associated Press and The Guardian appended the same editorial line to their reporting, stating that extreme heat events are "increased and exacerbated by climate change, which comes from the burning of fuels like gasoline, oil and coal." The Guardian opted for the more dramatic "climate crisis" — same story, same quotes, same framing, just a sharper stick.

What neither outlet mentioned: the energy policies tied to the climate agenda they're selling are driving up the cost of the very relief experts recommend. Authorities warned that children, older adults, and people with medical conditions are at risk of heat stroke or death, and advised seeking "air conditioning or a cooling center." Working Americans already squeezed by inflation face higher electricity rates driven by green energy mandates that force utilities away from reliable fossil fuel generation toward intermittent renewables. The press tells you to turn on the AC. It doesn't tell you who made it expensive to run.

NWS meteorologist Bob Oravec said the core of the heat would sink southward by early next week, with temporary relief coming mid-week before high temperatures potentially return by the weekend. Pete Miller, an outreach manager for the homeless services network Threshold CoC in Omaha, described conditions as "extraordinarily hot," adding: "The humidity is insane. You stand outside for 30 seconds and you get drenched. And it's going to be like that all night."

The continental U.S. endured the second-hottest first half of the year on record in 2026, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. A record is a record. But a heat dome is a weather phenomenon — meteorologists described it as atmospheric conditions that trap heat, accentuating and prolonging already high temperatures — not a policy mandate. The press knows the difference. It just won't say so.

Follow the money. Green energy mandates mean government-subsidized renewables, utility rate hikes, and taxpayer-funded incentives flowing to politically connected firms. Every heatwave story that ends with "blame fossil fuels" is a sales pitch for the same industry that profits from the transition away from them. The press doesn't disclose that conflict. It runs the line.

The question isn't whether it's hot. It's whether the people telling you it's hot have any intention of letting you afford to cool down.