In this story and video, Public Health Watch shows how state leaders have thwarted elected officials in Harris County, Texas, who want to crack down on air pollution from the petrochemical industry. In recent years the state has limited the county's ability to recover civil damages from polluters and has restricted voting access. The story connects the dots between voting and environmental enforcement and explains how young, local politicians of color are trying to do something about an intractable problem that's making people sick and sometimes killing them. The package was co-published on June 2 with Grist and the Investigative Reporting Workshop.
