The Environmental Protection Agency has released a three-step framework for regulating insecticides, winning praise from farm groups, state agriculture departments and the USDA for reworking a widely criticized plan proposed last year by the Biden EPA.

The EPA released its final “insecticide strategy” on April 29, one day before a court-set deadline to come up with a plan to keep insecticides from drifting or running off fields and harming federally protected species.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency found ways to protect threatened and endangered wildlife, while not burdening growers with unrealistic requirements.

“We are committed to ensuring the agriculture community has the tools they need to protect our country, especially our food supply, from pests and diseases,” he said in a statement.

The insecticide strategy will not immediately impose new requirements on farmers, but will guide future application instructions as the EPA registers or re-registers insecticides.

The EPA committed to developing the strategy to settle a lawsuit brought by the Pesticide Action Network and the Center for Biological Diversity. The groups claimed the EPA was violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to evaluate how each pesticide product was impacting endangered species.

The EPA acknowledged it was overwhelmed by the number of pesticide products it had to evaluate and pledged to come up with broad-based requirements for different types of pesticides.

The Biden EPA finished a herbicide strategy last year and essentially duplicated it for a draft of the insecticide strategy. Both strategies required applicators to rack up “mitigation points” prior to application to prevent chemicals from eroding or drifting off farm fields and coming into contact with federally protected species and their habitat.

The USDA warned that farmers would struggle to understand the complex mitigation requirements described in the strategy, while states complained the strategy failed to give farmers enough credit for conservation programs and required states to enforce unjustifiable mandates.

Farm groups said the EPA was overlooking the most up-to-date technology for targeting pests.

The Trump EPA said it addressed the complaints by giving pesticide applicators more ways to score “mitigation points.” The number of points needed will be printed on labels, according to the EPA. The points will vary by product, region and proximity to habitat.

“This strategy provides much needed improvements that will undoubtedly better protect U.S. homegrown crops from pests and diseases,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.

In some cases, participating in a conservation program will rack up enough points. In other cases, farming in a flat, dry county will score enough points. If that’s not enough, pesticide applicators may have to check an online EPA “mitigation menu” for other ways to score points.

The EPA ranked every county in the Lower 48 for runoff potential. Counties with “very low” runoff potential will receive the most points. Washington has 10 counties with very low runoff potential, while Oregon has eight, Idaho two and California five. 

National Association of State Departments of Agriculture CEO Ted McKinney said the Trump administration improved the strategy. “We are grateful EPA has crafted this strategy by listening to … constructive feedback from state agriculture departments,” he said.

It was unclear whether the EPA will revise the herbicide strategy to bring it in line with the insecticide strategy. Efforts to obtain further comment were unsuccessful.

The EPA is also obligated to develop strategies for regulating applications of fungicides and rodenticides.

The EPA notified U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco that it had met the deadline for finalizing the insecticide strategy. Spero originally set the deadline for Jan. 17. The Biden administration sought a delay that left finalizing the strategy to the Trump administration.