Agroeconomic costs for meeting the Environmental Protection Agency's mitigation menu approach to pesticide regulation

• Published in: Agricultural & environmental letters 2023-12, Vol.8 (2), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Duzy, Leah M., Campana, David J., Brain, Richard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abbreviations; Agricultural economics; Agriculture; End users; Endangered & extinct species; Endangered species; Environmental law; Environmental protection; Fisheries; Flexibility; Fungicides; Herbicides; Insecticides; Land management; Managers; Marine fish; Natural resources; Pesticides; Pilot projects; Resource conservation; Rodenticides; Threatened species; Wildlife; Wildlife conservation; Wildlife management
• ISSN: 2471-9625; 2471-9625
• DOI: 10.1002/ael2.20119

In April 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced a workplan for pesticide registration and reregistration to meet obligations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which included a menu of suggested mitigation measures to reduce potential for exposure of nontarget species to runoff, spray drift, and erosion. If adopted on registered product labels, it enables a prospective registrant to meet more stringent ESA criteria for registration, even during non‐ESA‐issued interim decisions. This paper identifies and evaluates complexities posed by the mitigation menu approach that could undermine good intentions underlying this new process and uses existing economic considerations to analyze positive and negative externalities. Several points of complexity demonstrate how the mitigation menu approach would benefit from further regulatory development or refinement. Changes should be informed by fundamental questions about the dynamics between landowners and land managers and, crucially, different motivations decision‐makers face in adopting voluntary versus regulatory mitigations. Core Ideas EPA's mitigation measures approach (mitigation menu) was designed to ease regulatory ESA challenges in pesticide registration. The mitigation menu approach rewards land managers who employ conservation measures and incentivizes participation. The mitigation menu approach could have undesirable consequences, including increased costs to landowners and land managers. Examining real‐world considerations is important to build on the existing approach to maximize its utility. Starting in early 2022, in response to legal challenges and resource constraints, EPA began implementing notable changes to registration of new and existing pesticides to meet their obligations under the ESA. They introduced a mitigation menu approach to be applied to labels earlier during the registration or through registration review process prior to consultation. Consideration must be given to the economic consequences and implications for agricultural production.