Latest in the dicamba saga

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Latest in the dicamba saga

The 9th Circuit Court has issued an order directing the EPA to respond by tomorrow (Tuesday) to the emergency motion filed late last week by groups seeking to stop the use of dicamba this growing season.

Those groups say the court should hold the EPA and its administrator Andrew Wheeler in contempt for allowing the continued use of the herbicide.

Wheeler was in Milwaukee this morning for a Great Lakes-related event and during a follow-up news conference, Brownfield’s Larry Lee asked him about the latest directive from the 9th Circuit.

“There is a motion made by the other side to the court and the court has asked for our take on it,” Wheeler said. “We’re issuing that brief tomorrow and then hopefully the court will decide that what we have put forward is a very reasonable approach on how to deal with dicamba as it is discontinued.”

Wheeler said the court has to provide some answers as well.

“The court did not speak to a number of the issues that we addressed in our order, such as supplies. You know, people have to have a way of disposing of (dicamba), whether it’s the use by the farmers or allowing them to ship it back to the manufacturers. None of that was covered in the court decision, but all of that has to be addressed.”

On Friday, two of the companies whose products were involved in the lawsuit—Corteva and BASF— filed motions to intervene in the case.

Corteva said it wants to preserve its rights and the rights of customers to use the dicamba weed control technologies. BASF said it acted because of the “sudden and severe financial impact” the court’s ruling could have on farmers.

Bayer, the other company involved, intervened last year and submitted a brief last month saying the use of existing dicamba stocks should be allowed even if the court vacated the registrations.

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