Court rules EPA cannot vacate Enlist Duo label; may review it By Colleen Scherer, managing editor January 28, 2016 | 7:32 am EST

Last fall, the Environmental Protection Agency filed a petition to vacate the label for Dow AgroScience’s Enlist Duo herbicide, which contains 2,4-D choline and glyphosate. On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied EPA’s motion to vacate the herbicide’s registration. Instead, the court ruled that the EPA can review whether it was right in approving the controversial herbicide. Enlist Duo is a herbicide that was developed by Dow AgroSciences to help farmers combat weeds resistant to glyphosate, which has become a significant problem for farmers in the United States. Garry Hamlin, a spokesman for Dow AgroSciences, said, “Dow AgroSciences will continue to work cooperatively with the U.S. EPA concerning Enlist Duo.” It was considered unusual for EPA to ask the court to cancel its own approval of a herbicide last November. EPA claimed it was concerned that the combination of 2,4-D and glyphosate may have “potential synergistic effects between the two ingredients on non-target plants.” As a result, farmers can still use and ag retailers can still sell Enlist Duo for the upcoming growing season. The label was never pulled and while the case was being decided, the product was never removed from the market. Dow AgroSciences is currently still awaiting import approval from China for Enlist corn, which is engineered to withstand Enlist Duo. Currently, Enlist Duo is registered in 15 states, including, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Although the company introduced Enlist cotton earlier this year, EPA has not approved the use of Enlist Duo on cotton.