Ninth Circuit Finds EPA Failed to Comply with ESA in its Registration of a Bee-Killing Pesticide

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect endangered species from the bee-killing insecticide sulfoxaflor, which targets aphids that feed off certain crops. The court held that the agency’s 2019 decision to unconditionally allow new uses of sulfoxaflor violated the Endangered Species Act. The court ordered the EPA to “act immediately to address these deficiencies and complete the ESA ‘effects’ determination and consultation requirements, as well as the [Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act] notice and comment obligation, within 180 days of the mandate being issued in this case.”