Sponsors (4)
The bill strengthens public reporting, interagency investigation, and federal jurisdiction to detect and address harmful atmospheric releases — improving accountability and potential protections for air quality and health — but it also creates significant liability, privacy, research‑chilling risks, regulatory uncertainty, and the potential for either under‑ or over‑regulation depending on whether control is centralized or left to states.
Residents and communities gain a new public reporting channel and stronger EPA-led investigation/coordination that can surface, investigate, and (when warranted) lead to enforcement or remediation of harmful atmospheric releases that affect air quality and health.
Federal agencies get clearer jurisdictional authority (including territorial airspace coverage) and interagency coordination tools, making cross-state or international enforcement and verification of weather-modification activities more feasible.
Researchers and scientists obtain clearer statutory definitions of 'weather modification' and related terms, reducing some regulatory ambiguity for legitimate research and program planning.
Researchers, utilities, local governments and companies face significant civil penalties and potential criminal exposure — including for individual discharges counted as separate violations — creating high legal and financial risk for routine or experimental activities.
Removing or limiting federal oversight for certain weather‑modification activities shifts control to states/localities and may leave downstream communities and environments exposed to uncoordinated or unregulated applications (e.g., impacts on water supplies and air quality across state lines).
Broad interstate-commerce and transmission predicates plus wide statutory definitions risk criminalizing ordinary remote communications or coordination (emails, research collaboration) and could chill legitimate scientific work and commercial activities like cloud seeding or aerosol trials.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Bans intentional weather modification (including geoengineering, cloud seeding, solar radiation management) in U.S. jurisdiction and repeals federal authorization for such activities.
Official title: To prohibit weather modification within the United States, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 15, 2025 by Marjorie Taylor Greene · Last progress July 15, 2025
Makes it a federal crime to perform weather modification inside U.S. territory when the activity crosses interstate or foreign commerce or other jurisdictional triggers, with criminal fines up to $100,000 per discrete release and up to 5 years imprisonment (or both) and civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation. It requires EPA, working with FAA and NOAA, to create a public reporting system, investigate reported incidents, and refer proven violations to the Department of Justice; it also repeals any existing federal statutory, regulatory, or executive authority that authorizes or licenses weather modification. The law defines "weather modification" broadly to include geoengineering, cloud seeding, solar radiation modification, aerosol releases intended to influence temperature, precipitation, or sunlight, and becomes effective 90 days after enactment.