"A former agriculture lobbyist helped reinstate a banned pesticide and two former chemical industry executives helped relax the EPA’s stance on formaldehyde."

"Environmental Protection Agency ethics officials have interpreted impartiality guidelines in a way that has allowed several former industry insiders to oversee dramatic changes to chemical regulations, documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show.

Those ethics decisions have cleared the way for a former agriculture lobbyist to help reinstate a pesticide that had been banned twice by federal courts, as well as for two former chemical industry executives to help reassess the agency’s stance on the dangers of formaldehyde.

Internal emails and documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity and shared with The Washington Post show EPA ethics officials determined that Kyle Kunkler’s recent lobbying on behalf of the American Soybean Association did not require his recusal from pesticide regulation, including decisions about dicamba, a pesticide that soybean farmers have wanted to see reinstated."

Amudalat Ajasa reports for the Washington Post January 19, 2026. [2]