The president and CEO of the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) says they expect Biden’s EPA to address transportation requirements for restricted-use pesticides and clarify other regulations.
Daren Coppock, President and CEO of the Agricultural Retailers Association explains to Brownfield that current transportation regulations began with paraquat, but will apply to other pesticides if the rules are not changed. Haulers are required to be certified applicators even if they don’t intend to apply the pesticides….
“If you haul in a truck, from the warehouse to the field or from the retailer to the field, you must have a CDL to drive your truck, so you’re trained to drive that field properly. But the current regulations also require that truck driver to have an applicator’s license.”
Coppock says they raised the issues with Trump’s EPA two years ago and he expects Biden’s EPA to address it and other regulatory issues affecting its members. “We don’t have it yet. I mean, it’s on the radar but we don’t have a resolution for it yet. So these kinds of issues, dicamba labeling, spray drift, what are you going to do with things like cancelled product stockpiles? Those are some of the things we’re watching at EPA.”
Coppock says ARA leaders have met with the new EPA administrator, Michael Regan, who has told them he will have an open-door policy with the association.
