ARA Co-Signs Letter Requesting Comment Extension for EPA’s Draft Insecticide Strategy

On August 9, 2024, ARA joined an industry coalition letter to EPA urging the agency to extend the public comment period for the Draft Insecticide Strategy by an additional 90 days.

The coalition letter states, “Insecticides are vital to the continued productivity and sustainability of our activities, which we use to protect our nation’s food, fuel, and fiber supplies; maintain important conservation practices; defend infrastructure; sustain public health initiatives; among other critical uses. Based on our initial assessment in the two weeks since its public availability, we expect this lengthy, complex proposal—which, in addition to its supporting documents, totals more than 700 pages—would profoundly and fundamentally alter our continued ability to access and use insecticides. A proposal of this significance warrants our thoughtful consideration and ability to prepare meaningful feedback for EPA, which is simply not possible in the short 60-day comment period offered by the Agency.” 

EPA responded in record time (3 days) with a rejection of the request by ARA and 239 organizations to extend the comment period beyond September 23, 2024.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public webinar on September 5, 2024, from 1-2 PM ET to provide an overview of its draft Insecticide Strategy. 

The webinar will include:

• Discussion of the proposed three-step framework to identify potential population-level impacts to species, identify mitigation measures to address these impacts, and determine the geographic extent of the mitigation measures;
• An overview of case studies to illustrate how the framework could be applied to representative insecticides and how EPA expects to implement the strategy in its registration and registration review actions; and
• An opportunity for the public to ask questions.

The webinar will be open to the public on the GoTo webinar platform, and all interested stakeholders are invited to attend. The agenda and instructions for joining the webinar will be sent to registered attendees.

LETTER