Must-read recap: The New Lede's top stories
The latest environmental news about your health and the planet
Pesticides, PFAS and production of biofuels are the main issues covered in-depth in recent days by The New Lede (TNL), an independent journalism initiative of the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Environmental policy disputes on these three important fronts are ongoing in court, within states, and at the federal levels, and we’re tracking them all.
Another victory for Monsanto in Roundup litigation
Last Thursday, a jury in Kansas City, Mo., dismissed the claims of Allan Shelton, a plaintiff who claims that his exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide is to blame for his cancer. The ruling gives the company a 3-to-3 tie in nationwide litigation over the herbicide – the first three wins were for plaintiffs, the latest three all for Monsanto.
Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, in a statement said, “The jury’s verdict in favor of the company brings this trial to a successful conclusion and is consistent with the evidence in this case that Roundup does not cause cancer.”
The jury’s decision “consistent with the assessments of expert regulators worldwide as well as the overwhelming evidence from four decades of scientific studies concluding that Roundup can be used safely and is not carcinogenic,” the company said.
TNL reached out to lawyers representing Shelton for comment.
‘Forever chemicals’ pose problems for farmers in Maine
Check out our exclusive reporting from Maine last week on the problems that some farmers are facing with pollution from the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.
We spoke with farmer Bill Pluecker, who owns an organic vegetable farm in Maine. He’s also a state representative who has sponsored many bills in the Maine legislature that would address widespread contamination of water, air and land. Types of PFAS have shown up in farm wells and farm soils from New Mexico and Colorado to Vermont, often due to PFAS runoff from firefighting foams at airports and military bases.
One recent estimate EWG pegged U.S. cropland potentially affected by PFAS – widely used in a host of consumer and industrial uses since the 1940s – at 20 million acres.
“It’s overwhelming; it’s in our products, in our bodies, in our food system,” said Pluecker, who’s grateful his own farm appears to have escaped PFAS contamination.
EPA boosts biofuels targets, drawing oil industry’s wrath
As expected, the Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized its renewable fuel standard biofuels production targets for 2022, and oil refiners aren’t happy.
Biofuels advocates welcomed the June 6 announcement, and as TNL reported last week, the EPA established a total renewable fuel goal for 2022 at 20.63 billion gallons. The agency also set a cellulosic biofuel goal at 0.63 billion gallons; a goal for biomass-based diesel at 2.76 billion gallons; and an advanced biofuel goal at 5.63 billion gallons.
The agency also announced a “supplemental” 250 million gallon goal, and said it intends to issue another such supplement in 2023, which will further hike the overall targets.
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson said the rule is “bewildering and contrary to the Administration’s claims to be doing everything in their power to provide relief to consumers. . . . Unachievable mandates will needlessly raise fuel production costs and further threaten the viability of U.S. small refineries, both at the expense of consumers. The Administration missed a prime opportunity to provide relief and will have no one to blame for this but themselves.”