Ten AGs Filed Amicus Brief in Support of Groups Challenging Improper Approval of New Uses of Pesticide Sulfoxaflor

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a coalition of 10 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of environmental and consumer advocacy groups challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) improper approval of new uses of the pesticide sulfoxaflor. Sulfoxaflor may pose an unreasonable risk to pollinators, which support agricultural production that is an essential part of states’ economies. The amicus brief emphasized that the EPA violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) by approving new uses of sulfoxaflor without soliciting input from the public. The brief also emphasized that the EPA failed consider the impact that authorizing new uses of sulfoxaflor will have on threatened and endangered species and their habitat, in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and part of “a troubling pattern of disregarding the ESA in pesticide actions.”