Judges Pan EPA Chlorpyrifos Delay But Steps To Require Action Unclear

摘要

Federal appellate judges are strongly backing environmentalists' claims that they have standing to sue EPA to force the agency to ban the commonly-used pesticide chlorpyrifos and that the agency is unlawfully delaying its response to their objections, though it is unclear how far judges will go to force the agency to act on their years-long push for a ban.During July 9 oral argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, two members of a three-judge panel strongly criticized EPA for failing to quickly answer environmentalists' objections to former Administrator Scott Pruitt's March 2017 reversal of an Obama-era proposed rule banning use of chlorpyrifos on food, a move that would clarify when judicial review of the order could begin."How long can EPA sit on this?" Judge Jacqueline Nguyen asked a Justice Department (DOJ) attorney.The department is arguing on EPA's behalf that the agency must resolve objections to Pruitt's reversal before that order is final and subject to judicial review, and that the process will take another year.But Nguyen and another judge doubted the agency needs additional time. "I'm not sure what EPA is utilizing this two-year time period to do," she said.