GregLEarthjustice

First off, when buying ornamental plants for your home garden, make sure that they don't come pre-treated with neonics. Unfortunately, many big nurseries are still selling flowers that are sprayed with neonics.

Home Depot, for example, tends to include a tag indicating that the plant has been treated with neonics "to prevent unwanted plants." Unfortunately, the tag doesn't divulge that neonics are deadly to bees, so the public can be misled into thinking that neonics are a good thing!

One big challenge we routinely face is that the courts tend to grant federal agencies a huge amount of deference when it comes to issues perceived as "technical." But in the case of sulfoxaflor, we were able to demonstrate that the problem was really pretty simple: EPA didn't have the scientific studies that they were supposed to have. The trick is cutting through the other side's inevitable smokescreen to make plain that basic flaw.

I don't think I can say it better than Judge N.R. Smith, a judge appointed by President Bush who authored a special concurrence in the sulfoxaflor case. In Judge Smith's words: "We will continue to grant agencies great deference, particularly in cases, such as this one, which involve 'substantial agency expertise'. . . However, there is a great difference between ordering an agency to explain every possible scientific uncertainty . . . and requiring it to articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action that is based on scientific data. . . . For me, unless I am provided with evidence of the EPA's basis for its judgment and knowledge, I can only assume it acted with none."

First, we cannot expect native pollinators to stand in for commercially kept honeybees. Native bees are great, but where are we going to find the 1.5 million colonies it takes just to pollinate California's almond crop each January? Second, every indication is that native bees have been taking it in the ear as well, and that's a huge environmental impact in its own right.