The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt signed an order denying a petition that sought to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide crucial to agriculture that has been in use since 1965.
Pruitt has begun the process of turning back regulations created during the previous administration since being sworn in to office in February, according to DTN/Progressive Farmer.
Under President Barack Obama, the EPA proposed in 2015 to revoke all uses of chlorpyrifos on food—a move made in response to a petition from environmental and public health groups, the EPA said in its news release. A federal judge had given the EPA until March 31 to decide whether to finalize its ban of the chemical.
The EPA said that its October 2015 proposal to revoke food tolerances “largely relied on certain epidemiological study outcomes, whose application is novel and uncertain, to reach its conclusions.”
“The public record lays out serious scientific concerns and substantive process gaps in the proposal,” EPA said in its release.
“Reliable data, overwhelming in both quantity and quality, contradicts the reliance on—and misapplication of—studies to establish the end points and conclusions used to rationalize the proposal.”
Pruitt said that by not banning chlorpyrifos, he is providing “regulatory certainty” to thousands of American farms that rely on the pesticide.
“By reversing the previous administration’s steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using sound science in decision-making—rather than predetermined results,” Pruitt said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed with the decision.
“This is a welcome decision grounded in evidence and science,” Sheryl Kunickis, USDA director of the Office of Pest Management Policy, said. “It means that this important pest management tool will remain available to growers, helping to ensure an abundant and affordable food supply for this nation and the world.”
Chlorpyrifos is used on more than 50 crops, including soybeans, alfalfa, wheat, citrus, fruit, tree nuts, vegetables, sugarbeets and cotton, CropLife America said in a brief filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) was quick to praise the decision.
“Farmers nationwide depend on chlorpyrifos in managing their crops,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a news release. “It is widely and safely used for a wide range of crops. It also protects hundreds of thousands of acres of grass seed production, where it controls aphids, cutworms and other pests.”
Duvall noted the chemical is still subject to registration review and any concerns about its safe use can be addressed in that process.
Dow AgroSciences, the maker of the pesticide, also praised Pruitt’s decision.
“Dow AgroSciences remains confident that authorized uses of chlorpyrifos products offer wide margins of protection for human health and safety,” the company said in a statement.