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Court Finds that EPA's Conduct in Metolachlor Case is Inexplicable
On August 27, 2001, a federal court in Memphis dismissed all of the claims in a case filed by Cedar Chemical, a metolachlor "Me-Too" registration applicant Cedar had sued EPA and the original metolachlor registrant Syngenta. The court dismissed Cedar's claims against EPA even though EPA itself did not file any motion to dismiss. The court's opinion raises serious questions about EPA's conduct of this litigation. In the court's own words:
Inexplicably, the EPA did not move to dismiss the Cedar complaint....The court expected that EPA would file such a motion at this time, based on statements of its counsel at the August 6, 2001 hearing in these cases.
CRE has been following the controversy over the metolachlor because it raises the issue of whether EPA is serious about its pesticide Reduced Risk Initiative. Under its own Reduced Risk Initiative the EPA required Syngenta to eliminate use of metolachlor so benefits of the new "reduced risk product" would be realized. Granting the metolachlor "Me-Too" applications would gravely, perhaps mortally, injure this important program which encourages companies to voluntarily introduce more environmentally friendly pesticide products. Like the court, CRE finds EPA's conduct in the Cedar case to be inexplicable. The Agency has some explaining to do.
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Court's Opinion (pdf 1.0 MB)
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