Why do the USDA and EPA claim the ruling will cost hundred of thousands of dollars?
The USDA and the EPA have each employed very different, and wildly inaccurate, methods that attempt to guess what the impact of Judge Coughenour’s ruling will be. Both estimates were reached months before Judge Coughenour’s ruling was made, and both are based on incomplete versions of “worst-case” scenarios, which include pesticides that are not subject to the court’s ruling. For example, federal agricultural officials based their analysis on the assumption that farmers would opt to tear out fruit trees in the 100-yard no spray zone, even though ground applications would be permitted in 80 percent of the buffer banned for aerial spraying and alternatives are available in the entire zone. In reality, the buffers imposed by the court are already commonly recommended, and the economic impact to growers, if any, will be minimal.
