A lawsuit challenging EPA's regulation of neonicotinoid-treated seeds will proceed following a federal judge's rejection of EPA's motion to dismiss the case.

 

Beekeepers and environmental groups filed a complaint in January contending that EPA violated both the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) when it extended the “treated article” exemption under FIFRA to neonic-coated seeds.

 

Without getting to the merits of the issue, U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup found it “plausible” that EPA guidance issued in 2013 qualifies as “final agency action,” and is thus subject to judicial review.

 

EPA argued that the 2013 Guidance, “at least in regards to coated seeds, merely constituted a recommendation,” the judge said in his 9-page order declining to dismiss the case, as sought by EPA.

 

Alsup, whose court in California's Northern District lies within the 9th Circuit, said that in that circuit, similar environmental cases have been decided only after full review of the Administrative Record - in this case, all the materials involved in the agency's decisionmaking process for the 2013 guidance.

 

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