EPA Let Bayer Choose Its Own Dicamba Rules, Documents Reveal
Internal agency documents show the EPA solicited Bayer's regulatory preferences for the weedkiller dicamba, then incorporated them into a proposed federal rule.
The Environmental Protection Agency allowed agrochemical giant Bayer to select from a menu of regulatory options for the controversial weedkiller dicamba before folding those choices directly into a proposed federal rule, according to newly released internal agency documents.
The records offer a rare and unusually detailed window into a regulatory process that typically unfolds behind closed doors, far from public scrutiny. Step by step, the documents show the EPA soliciting Bayer's preferences, receiving the company's response, and then translating those preferences into official rulemaking language.
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Dicamba has drawn widespread criticism for drifting onto neighboring fields and damaging crops not engineered to tolerate it, causing significant agricultural harm across multiple growing seasons. The herbicide is manufactured and sold by Bayer, making the company a direct financial stakeholder in how strictly — or loosely — it is regulated.
The disclosed documents raise fresh questions about the integrity of the EPA's pesticide oversight process and the degree to which regulated industries can shape the rules designed to govern them. Critics of the practice argue that allowing a corporation to effectively draft its own regulatory framework undermines the public-interest mission of federal environmental agencies.
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