Weather modification bills, fueled by ‘magic' and conspiracy theories, advance in Louisiana

Yahoo

19-05-2025

Bills banning weather modification in Louisiana are making their way through the State Legislature. Cloud seeding is a real field of scientific study, but can be rife with misinformation. (Elise Plunk/Louisiana Illuminator)
Two bills to ban weather modification in Louisiana have quietly moved their way through the state legislature this session, as a cohort of other states have moved to do the same with technology that purports to encourage rain or alter temperature.
Senate Bill 46, sponsored by Sen. 'Big Mike' Fesi, R-Houma, and House Bill 608, by Rep. Kim Coates, R-Ponchatoula, would ban the intentional release of chemicals into the atmosphere to alter the weather or climate. Coates' measure includes a $200,000 fine for any violation.
Weather modification is a wide-reaching term and often marbled with deep veins of misinformation. Human efforts and theories that attempt to alter precipitation or temperature are real but largely new areas of scientific study. The concept of weather modification has produced solid science along with skepticism and conspiracy theories in the decades since studies began.
The Louisiana bills specifically reference cloud seeding, or attempts to encourage rainfall with aerosols sprayed into the air. They also cover solar radiation modification, which tries to deflect sunlight away from Earth to curb increasing temperatures and associated climate change.
Cloud seeding experiments are exceedingly rare along the Gulf Coast, and solar radiation modification exists only as a theoretical concept. Robert Rauber, an atmospheric scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, said cloud seeding simply doesn't have widespread use in Louisiana, where rain is relatively abundant.
'The Gulf Coast doesn't need rain,' Rauber said, unlike the mountainous or desert states where cloud seeding is a more attractive option. 'The reason why they cloud seed out west is to increase water supplies.'
Rauber has participated in a variety of cloud seeding experiments in mountainous regions of the western United States and said the types of clouds along the Gulf Coast aren't really conducive for seeding.
'It's never been proven to work' at scale with the puffy, cumulus clouds more common in the South, said Rauber. 'These clouds form wherever the heck they want … you can't target an area very effectively.'
Cloud seeding can't alter the paths or intensity of hurricanes either, said Rauber. He cited failed experiments in the 1940s when scientists seeded hurricanes with dry ice to see if they could weaken their intensity. Although researchers learned valuable information on how hurricanes formed and traveled, they were not able to change their path or intensity.
One business has conducted cloud seeding experiments along the Gulf Coast, according to Rauber, who stressed that the science is shaky.
Rainmaker Technology Corp., a geoengineering company based in El Segundo, California, has conducted experiments along the Gulf Coast as recently as March, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records. The company claims to use charged water particles to promote rain instead of aerosols.
'It's magic as far as I'm concerned because I have not seen any scientific research done in a proper way that shows that any of that is effective,' Rauber said. Misinformation and unproven methods that Rainmaker Technology and other companies promote adds to public fear and conspiracy theories surrounding weather modification, the professor said.
Rainmaker Technology did not respond to calls for comment.
Cloud seeding with silver iodide has been practiced for more than 70 years, and the scientific consensus is that the amount used is relatively effective, with the right clouds, and environmentally safe. Sprayed into clouds as an aerosol, silver iodide freezes and gives moisture-heavy clouds something to grab onto, coaxing its water molecules to condense and fall from the sky as rain.
James Diaz, a medical toxicologist and professor emeritus at the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Public Health in New Orleans, said silver can prompt reactions when ingested in large doses and lab experiments suggest the heavy metal could be harmful to aquatic life in large amounts over time, but he said the amounts used for cloud seeding do not alarm him.
'These toxicities are unlikely after cloud seeding,' Diaz said.
It's a similar story with iodide. Large amounts over long periods of time can do environmental and health harm, but Diaz said the amounts needed for cloud seeding aren't worrying.
'We should be more concerned about petrochemicals and pesticides,' he said.
Fesi's bill doesn't apply to firefighting aerosols or pesticides used for agriculture. Coates said in an interview she intends to amend her bill so that it would not apply to pollutants emitted from the burning of fossil fuels.
Fesi mentioned in his floor speech that sulfur dioxide is among the chemicals he believes are being sprayed into the atmosphere. There is no evidence that cloud seeding uses sulfur dioxide. The burning of fossil fuels, namely coal and oil at power plants and industrial facilities, is one of the largest sources of sulfur dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Coates and Fesi clarified in interviews their bills will not regulate industrial emissions.
Coates said she considers her bill to be part of the wider push in Republican-led states to ban weather modification, adding she believes the issue to have bipartisan appeal. Florida recently approved legislation similar to what's under consideration in Louisiana, and Tennessee approved a ban on weather modification in 2024.
'I just decided that I wanted to bring the bill because I don't feel like anyone in Louisiana gave someone the right to do research in the air above us,' Coates said. 'That's our air above us, and we haven't given anybody permission, anybody the right to spray or do any modification above us.'
When asked about the lack of widespread weather modification experiments in Louisiana, Coates said her bill is more precautionary.
'Why mess with Mother Nature?' she added.
Coates' bill advanced from the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment with unanimous support and awaits debate in the full House.
Fesi testified on the Senate floor April 28 during debate over his bill that he believes 'certain agencies within the federal government are doing cloud seeding and geoengineering.' In an interview Friday, the senator was asked what evidence he had to support his claims.
'Look up in our sky,' Fesi answered.
In an interview, Fesi later said he sees 'just tons and tons of cloud seeding' above his backyard and described it as 'all of the stripes across the skies.'
Neither bill specifically discusses banning contrails, short for condensation trails. The thin, white cloud streaks that stretch behind airplanes are created as warm exhaust from jet engines meet the icy cold atmosphere, similarly to how warm breath briefly creates a fog in cold air. Unsubstantiated contrail theories attempt to connect weather modification and contrails, alleging jets are spraying chemicals for reasons ranging from weather alterations to population control.
Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, was the only lawmaker to question Fesi's claims on the Senate floor. He responded that '32 different agencies collect money for geoengineering of our weather.' Pressed by Barrow for details, Fesi shared a widely debunked conspiracy theory that the federal government is spraying aerosols to block sunlight, and that the materials – namely aluminum oxide – have been found in agricultural fields from contrail chemical spraying.
No evidence exists of a government program that conducts or collects money for cloud seeding or solar radiation modification experiments.
With no one else challenging his statements, Fesi's bill advanced from the Senate on a 27-12 party line vote, with Republicans prevailing. The measure awaits committee consideration in the House of Representatives.