JEFFERSON CITY — The House Special Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs heard two bills this week that would prohibit the use of geo-engineering and other weather modification techniques.
HB 2388 and HB 2656 are identical pieces of proposed legislation that would prohibit geo-engineering, weather modification and cloud seeding in Missouri.
The bills, referred to as the Clear Skies Act, were sponsored by Rep. Steve Jordan, R-Advance, and Rep. Burt Whaley, R-Clever.
"Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana have all passed bills banning geo-engineering. We need to do the same here in Missouri," Jordan said. "The bottom line is: we don't want toxic pollution to be intentionally sprayed into our atmosphere to modify our climate."
The bills define geo-engineering as "large scale manipulation of the environment, including, but not limited to the release of agents that increase air pollutants."
In practice, according to an Environmental Protection Agency website, this process involves the release of artificial particles from airplanes into clouds with the objective of either increasing rainfall (cloud seeding) to combat drought or reflecting sunlight to cool the earth (solar geo-engineering).
The EPA considers cloud seeding to be the most common example of weather modification: the intentional modification of regional or local weather patterns. The agency reports that as of 2024, federal agencies actively supported cloud seeding efforts in nine different states to fight drought.
EPA says the U.S. government does not practice any form of outdoor solar engineering. The agency is only aware of one company, Make Sunsets, that has engaged in this.
The bill's authors claim that private firms who provide cloud seeding services profit from clients who pay them to modify the amount of rain or snowfall in certain places. A quick Google search will confirm that these companies exist, but nobody was present at the hearing to represent them or oppose this legislation.
"You might see a lot more of this in places like Colorado where it's really important that they have snowfall for their ski season," said Michael Hogan, co-founder of Missouri Clean Skies, the organization that produced this legislation.
Missouri Clean Skies argues that the potential negative impacts of this practice outweigh the potential positive effects it could have on climate change. Furthermore, they don't believe that the government, nor private firms, should have the right to manipulate the weather without the consent of the people.
The EPA acknowledges that solar geo-engineering can lead to ozone depletion, an increased risk of acid rain and changes in the amount of rainfall and drought in specific regions. Their website also says that some particles being added to the stratosphere will eventually come down to Earth's surface where they can make it difficult to breathe.
Though geo-engineering is real, the nature of it is very much disputed. Some representatives on the committee were confused and skeptical of the existence of this practice and of its potential adverse effects.
When Jordan and Whaley introduced the legislation, they were questioned by several members of the committee.
"Isn't it true that every time I breathe out I'm releasing some sort of biological chemical into the atmosphere?" asked Rep. Renee Reuter, R-Imperial.
"What I'm envisioning is that there's someone who's trying to take over the world and that they're doing it through this chemical release situation?" asked Rep. Kem Smith, D-Florissant.
She drew parallels between the Clear Skies Act and presumably false claims about extreme weather that had been made by her constituents.
"Being from St. Louis and having experienced two different tornadoes, this is what we constantly hear," said Smith. "That someone is messing with the weather."
Other representatives were more accepting of the claims made by the bill's sponsors and authors.
Rep. Bryant Wolfin, R-Ste. Genevieve, asked about potential adverse health effects. Rep. Colin Wellenkamp, R-St. Charles, supported the legislation because he thought it may finally incentivize the aviation industry to create jet fuel that's less harmful to the environment.
Hogan was accompanied by about 20 supporters, a few testified in support after he did.
One person claimed that his illness was caused by the byproducts of geo-engineering, while a woman argued that weather modification was unnecessary because climate change doesn't exist, and additionally several people said they considered geo-engineering to be an obstruction of God's plan.