Houston, March 30 (RHC)-- In the U.S., Texas officials and the Environmental Protection Agency barred NASA scientists from studying the release of toxic chemicals in and around Houston in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. 

That’s according to the Los Angeles Times, which reports NASA scientists were stunned after they were barred from flying a jet over Houston equipped with sophisticated air samplers that would have helped to identify areas where toxic releases posed a threat to human health. 

Hurricane Harvey inundated the Texas coast with record rainfall, dropping more than 60 inches of rain over the course of a few days.  The area is home to thousands of oil refineries and petrochemical plants, as well as over a dozen Superfund sites.

In other news, the Trump administration is proposing ending endangered species protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states.  Critics say the move would endanger the estimated 5,000 gray wolves currently living in the continental United States, excluding Alaska. 

In a statement, the Western Environmental Law Center said: “Allowing people to kill wolves in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana has already stunted recovery in those states.  Applying this same death-sentence to wolves throughout the contiguous U.S., would nationalize these negative effects, with potentially catastrophic ripple effects on ecosystems wherever wolves are found today.”