Interior secretary nominee blocked pesticide-study release

David Bernhardt
(AP photo by David Zalubowski)

David Bernhardt, President Trump's nominee to lead the Interior Department, blocked a Fish and Wildlife Service study in late 2017 that could have led to tighter restrictions on two widely used pesticides.

Of the three pesticides studied, the FWS analysis "found that two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they 'jeopardize the continued existence' of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants, a conclusion that could lead to tighter restrictions on use of the chemicals," Eric Lipton reports for The New York Times.

Just before the report's planned release in November 2017, Bernhardt led a team that blocked it and launched a new process that required the pesticides to meet a much narrower standard in order to be considered dangerous. The approach was one that pesticide makers and users had lobbied "intensively" to promote, Lipton reports. Bernhardt is a former lobbyist and petroleum-industry lawyer who frequently worked on endangered-species issues.

Dow AgroSciences (recently renamed Corteva) manufactures chlorpyrifos. It donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee. "EPA and Interior Department records show that top pesticide industry executives had regular access to senior agency officials, pressing them to reconsider the way the federal government evaluates the threat pesticides cause to endangered species," Lipton reports.

The Times and the Center for Biological Diversity unearthed Bernhardt's move after obtaining more than 84,000 pages of documents from Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency through a Freedom of Information Act request. "The documents provide a case study of how the Trump administration has been using its power to second-guess or push aside conclusions reached by career professionals, particularly in the area of public health and the environment," Lipton reports.