The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the EPA to either issue a new regulation concerning the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos or issue a complete formal response to the request by the end of October, more than eight years after conservation groups first filed the petition.
“Although filibustering may be a venerable tradition in the United States Senate, it is frowned upon in administrative agencies tasked with protecting human health,” the court wrote in its opinion.
“We recognize the scientific complexity inherent in evaluating the safety of pesticides and the competing interests that the agency must juggle,” the judges said. “However, EPA’s ambiguous plan to possibly issue a proposed rule nearly nine years after receiving the administrative petition is too little, too late.”
The court ruled that the EPA’s delays are “egregious” and granted requests from the Pesticide Action Network North America and the Natural Resources Defense Council to force the EPA to act.
Chlorpyrifos is one of the most widely used agricultural pesticides. It is banned from residential use, and conservation groups want more restrictions on it, citing evidence that links it to developmental problems, lowered brain function, loss of memory and other issues in children and agricultural workers.
“Although filibustering may be a venerable tradition in the United States Senate, it is frowned upon in administrative agencies tasked with protecting human health,” the court wrote in its opinion.
“We recognize the scientific complexity inherent in evaluating the safety of pesticides and the competing interests that the agency must juggle,” the judges said. “However, EPA’s ambiguous plan to possibly issue a proposed rule nearly nine years after receiving the administrative petition is too little, too late.”
The court ruled that the EPA’s delays are “egregious” and granted requests from the Pesticide Action Network North America and the Natural Resources Defense Council to force the EPA to act.
Chlorpyrifos is one of the most widely used agricultural pesticides. It is banned from residential use, and conservation groups want more restrictions on it, citing evidence that links it to developmental problems, lowered brain function, loss of memory and other issues in children and agricultural workers.