Commentary: Lawmakers Want the EPA to Ignore Impacts of Pesticides on Endangered Species
According to the latest push by House Republicans, pesticides — all of them — are so safe there's no longer any need to bother asking experts to determine their harm to our most endangered species before approving them. It's not true, of course — not even vaguely. It's such an outrageously anti-science statement it's laughable.
April 13, 2018 | Source: Environmental Health News | by Lori Ann Burd
It would be hard to overstate the dangers of this Farm Bill rider.
According to the latest push by House Republicans, pesticides — all of them — are so safe there’s no longer any need to bother asking experts to determine their harm to our most endangered species before approving them.
It’s not true, of course — not even vaguely. It’s such an outrageously anti-science statement it’s laughable.
But not surprisingly, that’s what pesticide makers like Dow Chemical would have us believe.
And now that’s what Republicans in Congress would have us believe.
This week some of the biggest agriculture and pesticide players in Washington, D.C. — including Croplife and Dow Chemical — succeeded in getting Republicans to include a rider in the 2018 Farm Bill that would exempt the Environmental Protection Agency’s pesticide-registration program from the most important parts of the Endangered Species Act: