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U.S. citrus farmers are feeling squeezed by a recent decision of the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A three-judge panel of the court in September invalidated the EPA’s approval of sulfoxaflor, a highly effective new insecticide used widely on citrus.
That decision denies farmers a critical tool to resist an invasion insects called psyllids that spears citrus greening disease.
The court overturned the agency’s registration of sulfoxaflor because, according to Judge Mary M. Schroeder, “given the precariousness of bee populations, leaving the EPA’s registration of sulfoxaflor in place risks more potential environmental harm than vacating it.”
But the court’s presumption is wrong: The state of bee populations is not precarious, and “unreasonable adverse effects” are unlikely–even if some of the data submitted to EPA to support the registration were, indeed, “flawed and limited.”
The Ninth Circuit judges were persuaded by EPA’s failure to adhere to its own regulations concerning data about toxicity to bees. Although they are hardly exemplars of competence, EPA pesticide regulators should know that failing to adhere to their own regulations opens their decisions to challenges in the courts. However, the Ninth Circuit need not have vacated (invalidated) the sulfoxaflor registration. Simple “remand” (conveying the decision to the EPA with instructions on how to proceed) would have been an appropriate alternative.
Even if everything the judges said was correct, their decision to “help” bees favors commercial beekeepers over citrus growers. This is unfortunate because, at present, beekeepers are receiving top dollar for pollination services, while the prices for honey and beeswax are increasing. Citrus growers, on the other hand, are facing devastation.
Read full, original post: EPA’s Bungling And Judicial Overreach Squeeze The Citrus Industry
