Facing an October deadline to ban the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, the EPA asked a federal appeals court on Monday for a rehearing of the case that resulted in the ban. The environmental law firm Earthjustice said the EPA request will postpone the court order of early August to ban the pesticide in 60 days.
In the filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th circuit in San Francisco, the EPA said the August order over-stepped the jurisdiction of regulatory agencies and also was not in line with a 1952 Supreme Court decision on a court’s ability to tell regulators to take a specific action. The EPA asked for a rehearing of the case by all of the judges serving on the 9th Circuit. The August order came from a three-judge panel.
“By keeping this unsafe pesticide in our food and drinking water, EPA is violating the law,” said Patti Goldman, managing attorney at Earthjustice.
The case grew out of a 2007 petition by environmentalists to ban chlorpyrifos, an insecticide originally developed as a nerve gas. The Obama administration decided in 2015 to ban the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops, but when the Trump administration took office, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt decided to allow its continued use, saying he used “sound science in decision-making.” Household use of the chemical was banned in 2000.
In the decision in August, appellate judge Jed Rakoff said EPA had failed to take decisive action on the 2007 petition despite studies showing it posed serious safety risks. “The time has come to put a stop to this patent evasion,” he wrote.
Chlorpyrifos is used on more than 50 crops. The USDA said EPA’s assessment of the pesticide showed no need for a total ban.
To read the EPA filing, click here.