What legal proposals have U.S. states introduced concerning geoengineering or 'chemtrail' bans since 2020?

1. A patchwork of laws and proposals: who has acted, and how

The state-level landscape is fragmented: Tennessee became the first state to adopt a law banning intentional atmospheric injection or dispersion to alter temperature, weather, or sunlight in 2024, and Florida followed with SB 36 in June 2025 that repealed earlier weather‑modification provisions and enacted a broad prohibition on geoengineering and related reporting requirements ^{[1] [3] [6]}. Advocacy and monitoring organizations report rapid growth in proposals—SRM360 and others document proposals in roughly 30 states by late 2025, and independent trackers list active bills across multiple sessions ^{[1] [5] [4]}. Not all proposals mirror Tennessee or Florida: some are narrow updates to existing cloud‑seeding laws, while others are sweeping bans that would criminalize a wide range of atmospheric interventions ^{[6] [1]}.

2. What the bills actually ban — and what they conflate

Many state bills adopt language that prohibits “the injection, release, or dispersion” of chemicals or devices into a state’s atmosphere to affect weather, temperature, or sunlight, a formulation that captures both solar radiation modification (SRM) concepts and traditional weather‑modification activities like cloud seeding ^{[1] [6] [2]}. Commentators and analysts warn that weather modification (a localized, decades‑old practice) is not the same as SRM (large‑scale solar geoengineering), yet legislative texts often conflate them, which can produce regulatory uncertainty and unintentionally block routine agricultural cloud‑seeding programs ^{[1] [4] [6]}.

3. Federal context and research versus state bans

At the federal level Congress had not enacted a law solely dedicated to solar geoengineering as of mid‑2025, though federal statutes like the Weather Modification Reporting Act remain relevant and NOAA has been directed to study Earth’s radiation budget and SRM since 2020; EPA has publicly stated it is tracking potential SRM activities and noted that, as of July 2025, only one private actor was known to have deployed an SAI/MCB experiment in the U.S. ^{[7] [2]}. Meanwhile, federal proposals such as the Clear Skies Act (H.R.4403) were introduced in Congress to broadly prohibit weather modification activities, signaling an overlap between some state and federal legislative impulses ^[8].

4. Politics, narratives, and the "chemtrails" subtext

The push for bans has political crosscurrents: analysts portray a convergence of libertarian‑right skepticism and anti‑expert, conspiracy‑tinted movements with environmental apprehensions on the left—creating a potent mix that channels longstanding “chemtrails” anxieties into formal legislation ^{[9] [10]}. Media reporting and activists explicitly link several state bills to chemtrail‑coded language and to anti‑government sentiment, and outlets such as The Guardian note at least eight states introducing such “chemtrail‑coded” measures by mid‑2025 ^{[11] [10]}.

5. Where bills stalled and the limits of current reporting

Not every proposal advanced: committees in states including Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming reportedly rejected measures after scientific or environmental council review, and many introduced bills have not become law ^[1]. Public trackers and advocacy websites provide lists of pending measures but vary in scope and updating; reporting reflects rapid change and does not yet offer a definitive, immutable tally of enacted statutes versus proposals ^{[5] [4]}. Sources do not provide a complete post‑June 2025 inventory of every state’s final legislative outcome, so definitive counts beyond those reported by SRM360, EPA, and major news outlets are limited ^{[1] [2] [5]}.