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EPA files brief defending continued use of dicamba herbicides

The EPA, in a brief filed Tuesday with the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, defended its order allowing farmers to use existing stocks of dicamba herbicides this growing season.

EPA also asked the court to throw out a motion to hold the agency in contempt.

EPA’s brief was in response to an emergency motion filed last week by a coalition of environmental and food safety groups who were successful in convincing the court to vacate the registrations of three dicamba herbicides. Those groups now have two days to respond to EPA’s brief, at which time the court is expected to issue a ruling on the emergency motion.

If the court were to uphold the emergency motion, it could put an immediate halt to use of the dicamba herbicides in question—XtendiMax, FeXapan and Engenia.