Florida Ban on Weather Alteration, ‘Chemtrails’ Passes Senate Floor With DeSantis Approval

TALLAHASSEE—Floridians who alter rain patterns, deflect the sun’s rays, or engage in any weather modification activity could now face a felony charge and a $100,000 fine, according to a bill that cleared the Senate Floor Thursday.

The proposal, by Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia, repeals 13 Florida statutes related to geoengineering. It’s also the newest tool in Gov. Ron DeSantis’s burgeoning war against the Florida House, where he’s juxtaposed Garcia’s version as a step against weather alteration while the House’s “codifies” the process. 

“The point of this bill from the very beginning was to separate fact from fiction,” said Garcia on the Senate Floor Thursday morning. 

“There are condensation trails, and then there are chemtrails that have yet to be established and understood,” she continued, stressing the prevalence of disinformation that she hopes the Department of Environmental Protection will be able to dispel, namely through her bill’s requirement that DEP establish an email for worried Floridians to report altered weather.

DEP, which would be charged with investigating claims of illegally modified weather, would be banned from conducting weather modification studies. As would everyday Floridians, who could face a $100,000 fine for injecting chemicals into the atmosphere, solar radiation management—deflecting solar rays to decrease the earth’s temperature—or “chemtrails,” the condensation vapor trailing airplanes that some believe to be dangerous chemicals. 

“I have a problem with people spraying perfume next to me sometimes, don’t you have a problem with people spraying things into the atmosphere that really have no type of empirical data?” Garcia questioned.

‘Gutting’ Garcia’s Bill

Though Garcia’s bill has a companion version in the House, the lower chamber’s version is far weaker. It continues to allow weather modification activities, slightly strengthening the penalty for doing so without a license to $10,000. 

This, DeSantis says, is a stab at Garcia’s legislation, and needs to be discouraged.

“The Florida House of Representatives has gutted Senator Garcia’s legislation, and they would actually codify the practice of geoengineering and weather modification,” DeSantis said in a social media video posted on Wednesday. 

The relationship between the House, led by Republican Speaker Danny Perez, and the governor has been rocky all year, beginning with a month-long spat over illegal immigration starting in January. 

Though tempers were soothed after a compromise package was signed, tensions began to simmer after Perez led the charge to override nearly $5 million of DeSantis’s vetoes from last year’s budget and then announced a dueling tax proposal to the governor’s last week.

DeSantis, in response, has issued four social media videos scathing House Republicans while blasting them at three different press events. This comes as the House has taken up a series of proposals hampering the governor’s priorities, including preventing appointees (like Attorney General James Uthmeier) to elected positions from receiving a higher pension contribution rate.

“There are several articles from very bigwigs in the area that agree that…we need to do a better job at trying to better understand this before we become guinea pigs,” Garcia concluded.

Garcia’s bill passed the Senate Floor with no debate in a 29 to 9 vote. Senators Jason Pizzo and Barbara Sharief were the only Democrats to join Republicans in approving the measure.