State and Local Governments Across the Country are Sidelining Science. Here’s What’s Needed

This blog post was co-authored by Martha Kinsella, former senior counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. It was originally published in the blog STAT on November 10, 2023.

By Jacob Carter and Martha Kinsella 

In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought Texas rain that just wouldn’t stop. After four torrential days, 75 people had died, and Houston — America’s fourth largest city — was deep under water. But given that the area is home to Superfund sites, fossil fuel fired power plants, and other petrochemical hubs, this wasn’t ordinary rainwater. It was more like a toxic soup. Aerial photographs taken in the aftermath of the storm show the luminescent sheen of oil slicks and other toxins spreading across the city. Dangerous chemicals were also in the air. 

It wasn’t too long after the storm was gone that people…