Last summer, a federal appeals court gave the EPA until March 31 — this Friday — to decide whether to ban or allow continued use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, used on more than 50 crops, including alfalfa, corn, peanuts and wheat. Mother Jones says the new administration “will have to make a momentous choice” in its early days in office.
Environmental groups filed a petition in 2007 with EPA to revoke all uses of the organophosate pesticide, and sued the agency in 2013 and 2014 to force action because of toxicity concerns. The EPA banned most home uses of chlorpyrifos in 2000 because of health risks to children, says Mother Jones, but it allowed agricultural use to continue. The EPA proposed a rule to effectively ban farm use in 2015 but “then dragged its feet on finalizing the rule,” which led the appeals court to set a deadline for action.
“A few moths after that order, of course, Trump won the presidency, and so his EPA team will make the final decision on chlorpyrifos,” said the magazine. It says Dow, the maker of chlorpyrifos, “and the pesticide industry trade group Croplife America are pushing the EPA to backtrack on the chlorpyrifos ban.” Forty farm and agribusiness groups wrote EPA administrator Scott Pruitt in early March, urging him to keep the pesticide in use. They said, “For many important pests, growers face limited or no viable alternatives.”