EPA Let Bayer Choose Its Own Dicamba Rules, Documents Reveal
Internal EPA documents show the agency asked Bayer to select from regulatory options for dicamba, then codified the company's choices into proposed federal rules.
The Environmental Protection Agency allowed pesticide manufacturer Bayer to effectively choose its own regulations for dicamba, a widely used and controversial weedkiller, according to newly released internal agency documents reported by The Guardian.
The documents offer an unusually detailed window into a regulatory process that is ordinarily shielded from public scrutiny. They show a step-by-step sequence in which the EPA presented Bayer with a menu of regulatory options, received the company's preferences in response, and subsequently incorporated those selections into a proposed federal rule governing dicamba use.
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Dicamba has drawn significant attention in recent years due to its tendency to drift onto neighboring fields, damaging crops and vegetation not engineered to tolerate it. The herbicide's volatility has been at the center of legal battles and regulatory disputes across multiple growing seasons, making the question of who shapes its oversight particularly consequential for farmers and agricultural communities.
The disclosure raises broader questions about the influence that regulated industries exert over federal rulemaking, particularly within the EPA's pesticide division. While agency consultation with industry stakeholders is a standard part of the regulatory process, critics argue that allowing a company to directly select from proposed rule options goes well beyond typical input and blurs the line between regulator and regulated party.
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