Groups File Case Against EPA Over Sulfoxaflor
A coalition of 11 attorneys general led by California is urging a federal appellate court to reject an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bid to re-register an insecticide made by Corteva Agriscience, saying the move creates a loophole that allows for an indefinite “delay.”
California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his counterparts including in New York and Massachusetts, told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it should deny EPA’s motion to remand its registration of sulfoxaflor calling the agency’s move an attempt to delay the litigation “indefinitely” while allowing the product to remain on the market.
The EPA reapproved sulfoxaflor in July 2019 after its initial 2013 registration was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the agency’s failure to assess the pesticide’s impact on bees. The EPA’s 2019 approval authorized use of sulfoxaflor across more than 200 million acres of U.S. crops.
California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his counterparts including in New York and Massachusetts, told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it should deny EPA’s motion to remand its registration of sulfoxaflor calling the agency’s move an attempt to delay the litigation “indefinitely” while allowing the product to remain on the market.
The EPA reapproved sulfoxaflor in July 2019 after its initial 2013 registration was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the agency’s failure to assess the pesticide’s impact on bees. The EPA’s 2019 approval authorized use of sulfoxaflor across more than 200 million acres of U.S. crops.