The American Soybean Association and the Plains Cotton Growers, Incorporated, presented oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday. It’s a part of the case of the American Soybean Association versus the EPA.
The two groups urged the court to clarify jurisdictional rules under FIFRA and to require the Environmental Protection Agency to use the best available science when evaluating dicamba pesticide registrations and potential impacts to species protected by the Endangered Species Act. The groups filed the lawsuit against EPA in November 2020 on the five-year registration for the use of dicamba on dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton.
Growers argued EPA’s flawed approach led the agency to impose arbitrary and overly burdensome buffers and application cutoff dates. The groups are asking the court to remand portions of the registration back to the EPA for reconsideration with the direction to use the science and data available to the agency.
