NRDC v. E. Scott Pruitt et al. (Neonic Pesticides)

In the past 25 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved thousands of neonicotinoid (neonic) pesticides, a class of widely applied, neurotoxic insecticides. A massive body of evidence shows that neonics are a leading cause of bee die-offs seen around the world in recent decades, and research increasingly implicates neonics in bird declines and the collapse of aquatic ecosystems. They are disastrous for nearly all wildlife, but threatened and endangered species, which typically suffer from a number of existential threats, often face the greatest consequences from the use of neonics and other pesticides.

In approving neonic pesticides, the EPA violated the Endangered Species Act. The agency was required to consult with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service before it approved these toxic pesticides to evaluate their impact on threatened and endangered species and their habitats. The EPA never complied.

In response, on October 2, 2017, NRDC filed a lawsuit challenging the registrations of dozens of products containing one of three wildlife-harming neonic pesticides—acetamiprid, dinotefuran, and imidacloprid—with the aim of forcing the EPA to evaluate the impacts that pesticides have on imperiled species. The agency and the pesticide industry attempted to dismiss the lawsuit, but on September 25, 2019, a federal court denied the motion, allowing the case to move forward.

We entered into a pair of settlements with the EPA in January 2021 and March 2022 that required the agency to initiate consultations on the effects of imidacloprid (by June 2022) and acetamiprid and dinotefuran (by October 2024). If the EPA determined that these insecticides are likely to harm endangered or threatened species, the settlement required the agency to begin the formal consultation process required under the Endangered Species Act. That process should result in significant restrictions on use of these products to protect imperiled species and their habitats.

The EPA has now fulfilled its obligations under these settlements, issuing a set of determinations that reaffirm neonics’ disastrous effects on wildlife. In September 2021, the agency issued a determination that imidacloprid is likely to harm nearly 80 percent of listed species, triggering the formal consultation process. In May 2023, the EPA then predicted that imidacloprid use will likely push nearly 200 species closer to extinction. 

In October 2024, the EPA found that acetamiprid and dinotefuran likely harm 59 percent and 73 percent of listed species, respectively; the chemicals are pushing about one in ten listed species toward extinction. The agency must now use its upcoming review of each chemical to ensure that its approval does not jeopardize the future of these treasured species.