Groups Sue EPA Over Approval Of Bee-Killing Pesticide

Bloomberg Environment reports:

A pair of environmental groups are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to approve use of a bee-killing pesticide on more than 190 million acres of crops.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Aug. 20, over the Environmental Protection Agency’s July 12 decision to re-register sulfoxaflor.

Sulfoxaflor is an insecticide produced by Corteva Agriscience—formerly DowDuPont Inc.—and used to control aphids and other insects. In 2015, a federal appeals court ordered the agency to remove sulfoxaflor from the U.S. market because of concerns that the chemical is harmful to bees and other pollinators.

Via press release:



In addition to imperiling bees and butterflies, the EPA’s broad approval for sulfoxaflor also likely threatens endangered plants that rely on insect pollination.

Under the new approval, sulfoxaflor can be used on alfalfa, cacao, corn, cotton, grains, pineapple, sorghum, soybeans and strawberries as well as on tree plantations, ornamental crops and citrus orchards.

“This decision was pure pro-pesticide politics,” said George Kimbrell, legal director of the Center for Food Safety. “Trump’s EPA can’t justify throwing our already imperiled pollinators under the bus. That’s why the agency offered no chance for the public to comment. And that’s why we’re suing them.”