Alabama bill makes chemical weather control a crime: Critic says there is no ‘chemtrail’ government conspiracy

An Alabama legislative committee discussed but took no action Wednesday on a bill to make it a crime to put any chemical, substance, or apparatus into the sky to try to affect the weather or sunlight.

The sponsor, Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, said Alabama needs a law to prohibit activities or experiments intended to affect weather, including efforts that are in response to climate change.

“For many years we as a state have been at war with the federal government trying to cram values down our throats that weren’t Alabama values,” Butler said. “I see this as no different.”

The Alabama House Economic Development and Tourism Committee held a public hearing on the bill but did not take a vote.

The chairman, Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, said in a text message on Thursday that he was not convinced the bill was addressing a serious threat.

“Our committee will take a look at the evidence presented during the public hearing and make a decision based only on evidence and facts,” Whitt said. “In my personal opinion, this legislation does not meet this criteria.

“I do not believe that there is this huge federal government conspiracy that is spraying chemtrails and poisoning our citizens. I have been witnessing and counting plane contrails since I was a young child.”

“We will look into it, but at this time, I do not see the bill moving this session.”

Conspiracy theories about the government controlling the weather circulated last year after Hurricane Helene, including claims that the storm was steered to North Carolina.

Related: James Spann reported threats over hurricane misinformation: ‘If you hate me that is fine’

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene helped fuel the rumors with a post on X in October.

“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote. “Anyone who says they don’t, or makes fun of this, is lying to you.”

Greene linked to a 2016 video of CIA Director John Brennan talking about stratospheric aerosol injections (SAI), a form of solar geoengineering.

Brennan said SAI is “a method of seeding the atmosphere with particles that can help reflect the sun’s heat in much the same way that volcanic eruptions do.

“An SAI program could limit global temperature increases, reducing some risks associated with higher temperatures and providing the world economy additional time to transition from fossil fuels,” Brennan said.

A 2023 report by the Congressional Research Service, Solar Geoengineering and Climate Change, included a brief explanation of several proposed methods to try to limit global warming, including SAI.

The report describes the methods as theoretical and said that as of May 2023 that no solar geoengineering experiments at scale had been carried out.

“Thus, most of the current understanding about SG comes from theoretical and modeling studies,” the report says.

In response to the rumors about Hurricane Helene last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said “no technology exists that can create, destroy, modify, strengthen or steer hurricanes in any way, shape or form.”

The NOAA said, “Solar geoengineering, a theoretical practice which would modify the atmosphere to shade Earth’s surface by reflecting sunlight back into space, is not taking place at scale anywhere in the world.”

Butler’s bill would make it a make it a crime to “knowingly inject, release, or disperse, by any means, any chemical compound, substance, or apparatus within or above this state for the purpose of affecting weather, including temperature or the intensity of sunlight.”

Stephanie Durnin, director of Health Freedom Alabama, who spoke at the public hearing, said more than 20 other states, including Florida, have considered similar legislation. Tennessee has passed a bill.

Butler’s initial bill did not carry any criminal penalties but he said a substitute version would make the crime a Class A misdemeanor that would carry a fine of $100,000.

Butler said the bill would set up a procedure for citizens to report what they believe are violations of the prohibition. He said it would set up an Alabama Air Pollution Control Fund, to be administered by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Butler said he had not discussed the legislation with ADEM.

Whitt questioned how people would be able to recognize violations.

Whitt said that since the bill appeared on the committee’s agenda, people interested in the legislation had been sending him photos of contrails, the white streaks that form behind jets crossing the sky.

“How would you go about trying to police that, when a flight is originating in Georgia that’s flying to Texas and they’re coming over the state of Alabama?” Whitt said. “And you’ve not got a website that these individuals can go to report violations. Will they just not load that website up?”

“It would be cumbersome,” Butler said.

Butler said he was open to ideas about changing his bill but said he wanted to start discussion of the issues.

Butler said he had heard conspiracy theories related to weather control experiments.

“There’s all kinds of conspiracies people have told me about,” Butler said.

“I don’t know about the North Carolina thing. I’ve had people reach out to me and tell me you can control hail. You can steer tornadoes and do different things. I don’t know that you can do that.

“But if something is going to take place, whether it was a permitted system or whatever, we need to have the policy to protect our citizens. So that’s where I’m at in bringing this. It will be up to you guys to do what you think.”

Durnin said the legislation is needed because she said the threat from climate intervention experiments are real.

“The same people who lecture us about climate change are the same people advocating for spraying unknown substances into our skies,” Durning said. “They claim it will cool the planet. They ignore the dangers to human health.”

“Alabama does not consent to being a test site for dangerous new geoengineering schemes,” Durnin said.

This story was edited on March 21 to correct the spelling of Stephanie Durnin.