"Court Tosses Petition To Force U.S. To Ban Pesticide"

"NEW YORK - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday denied a petition by environmental groups to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban the agricultural pesticide chlorpyrifos, ending one of three parallel attempts to bring about the ban, court filings show.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in San Francisco, rejected a claim by the groups, including Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council, that the EPA had taken too long to act on the matter.

'Although EPA dragged its heels for nearly a decade, it has now done what we ordered it to do,' the judges wrote."

Emily Flitter reports for Reuters July 18, 2017.