Ileana Garcia files bill to ban weather modification, prevent chemtrails

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/4/22-Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, speaks during Session, Friday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Miami Republican state Sen. Ileana Garcia wants to end weather modification in the Sunshine State.

She recently filed a bill (SB 56) to repeal long-standing Florida statutes that allow state-licensed cloud seeding and other “artificial weather interference” and ban any such practices in the future.

If passed, the measure would repeal more than a dozen provisions related to the licensing, regulation and control of weather modification meant to cause or disperse rain, snow, fog or other atmospheric conditions.

It would also prohibit the injection, release or dispersion of any substance or apparatus into the atmosphere within Florida’s borders “for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, the weather, or the intensity of sunlight.”

Violators could face second-degree misdemeanor charges, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and an up to $10,000 fine — a sum far higher than the usual $500 penalty associated with a second-degree misdemeanor.

As of Monday afternoon, no House lawmaker had filed a companion bill.

Garcia said in a statement that the bill excises “outdated provisions” in state law and “enhances our regulatory framework to prevent misuse.”

“It is crucial for us to engage in this conversation, as our constituents deserve to know that their government is taking their concerns seriously and is committed to responsible oversight,” she said.

Based on Garcia’s recent social media activity, her concern about the issue stems at least in part from the chemtrails conspiracy theory. It’s a decades-old, debunked belief that contrails, the white lines of condensed water vapor that jets leave behind in the sky, are in fact toxic chemicals that the government and other entities are using to do everything from altering the weather to sterilizing and mind-controlling the populace.

Chemtrails conspiracy theories began circulating in the late ’90s after the U.S. Air Force published a report about weather modification. By 2001, federal bureaucracies had received thousands of communications about the fast-spreading concept, prompting the Air Force and a quartet of federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Federal Aviation Administration and NASA, to publish fact sheets explaining what contrails are and how they form. Many others, including Harvard University, added similar fact sheets in the decades that followed.

But beliefs that governments and corporations were nefariously poisoning the public persisted and are frequently amplified after natural disasters.

In April, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a measure the Tennessee General Assembly passed banning the “intentional injection, release, or dispersion” of airborne chemicals. Like Garcia’s proposal, the Tennessee measure does not include the word “chemtrails.”

Debate over chemtrails returned again in October when Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on X after Hurricanes Helene and Milton ravaged Florida, “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Greene drew censure from both sides of the aisle. President Joe Biden called her comments “beyond ridiculous” and “stupid.” U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, a Miami Republican, fired off a retort of his own online, writing: “Humans can’t create or control hurricanes. Anyone who thinks they can, needs to have their head examined.”

Greene defended her post, pointing to the NOAA’s “library catalog of 1,026 entries of weather modification” as proof. The list to which she referred, which Garcia shared on X on Nov. 29, exclusively contains instances of cloud seeding, a practice that has been used since the 1950s to dissipate or add to moisture in the air to create or mitigate fog, rain, hail and snow. Salts are most commonly used in the U.S., though the United Arab Emirates has used electric charges to cause rainfall since 2021 and Germany tested the use of infrared laser pulses in 2010.

Florida statutes governing artificial weather modification were first enacted in 1957 and have since undergone several updates. As they stand, they:

— Provide for the licensing, regulation and control of artificial weather interference to cause rain, snow, hail, moisture or water “in any form contained in the atmosphere.”

— Make clear that no person or corporation may artificially interfere with weather without a license from Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

— Outline qualification and application requirements, the cost ($1,000) of applying for a license to artificially interfere with the weather and $10,000 to $100,000 penalties if such activity causes injury, death or property damage.

— Require licensees to publish a notice of intention to artificially interfere with the weather in a local newspaper specifying the area of activity.

— Allow for emergency licensing, wherein the DEP may allow weather modification activity without requiring certain steps, including publication of notice of intention, if the Department deems it necessary to put out a fire, disperse fog or address some other pressing peril.

Florida Politics contacted Garcia for comment Monday but received no response by press time.

In an X post Sunday featuring pictures of contrails and a screencap of an Instagram post referring to SB 56 as coming “amid claims that hurricanes Helene and Milton … were deliberately manipulated,” Garcia thanked people who contacted her with “constructive input and respectful dialogue” about the bill.

“As a leader in the community, I’m committed to addressing the real issues affecting our communities,” she wrote, tagging the X accounts of Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Elon Musk and the Florida Senate.

“As a mother, daughter, and community member, I care deeply about our neighborhoods. I look forward to taking our challenges and turning them into meaningful discussions, and working together to shape impactful policies. I welcome your continued engagement!”

Interim committee meetings for the 2025 Legislative Session began in the House on Monday and will commence in the Senate next week. The Regular Session runs March 4 to May 2.