Banning Chemtrails: How to Win!
State Laws Can Ban Weather Modification, but Geoengineering’s a Different Beast—Here’s Why
Alright, folks—let’s cut through the haze and talk straight. If you’re one of those who’ve been squinting at the sky, pointing at contrails, and yelling “chemtrails!”—I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve spent years digging into this mess, from poring over FOIA docs to screaming at the EPA in 2015 about aviation pollution (check my speech here). You’re not crazy to be suspicious—there’s real stuff going on up there. But here’s the deal: passing state laws to stop weather modification? Totally doable and even enforceable. Banning “geoengineering” like stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI)? That’s a feel-good move, a loud “we’re mad as hell” signal—but it’s toothless when it comes to enforcement. Let me break it down for you, using the evidence I’ve piled up over a decade, and show you why aviation pollution’s the real fight we can actually win.
Weather Modification vs. Geoengineering: Know the Difference
First off, let’s clear the air (pun intended). Weather modification—like cloud seeding with silver iodide or dry ice—is old-school tech. It’s been around since the 1940s, and it’s local, tangible, and usually ground-based or low-altitude stuff. States can regulate that. Tennessee’s SB 2691/HB 2063, passed in 2024, says no to:
“intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight”
That’s a solid move against secret cloud-seeding ops or military experiments—like the ones I exposed in my 2013 piece on military experiments on unsuspecting folks. States have the muscle to enforce that under their police powers—think permits, inspections, fines. Look at Idaho’s S1065 and Florida’s CS/SB 56 (2025)—they’re pushing transparency or bans on weather modification. It’s practical, boots-on-the-ground lawmaking.
Now, geoengineering? That’s a whole other monster. Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) isn’t clouds or low-altitude soot. It’s pumping sulfur dioxide or fancy nanoparticles (Aluminum, Calcium, Diamond Dust, or Titanium) into the stratosphere—70,000 to 90,000 feet up—to whiten the sky and reflect sunlight. Think Mount Pinatubo vibes, but on purpose. David Keith’s crew has been drooling over this for years (see his 2010 paper on photophoretic levitation). It’s global-scale, high-altitude, and—here’s the kicker—way beyond state jurisdiction. Tennessee’s law sounds tough, but planes at 35,000 feet dropping soot or sulfur? That’s aviation pollution, not SAI, and it’s untouchable by states thanks to federal law.
Mexico has not set a date for implementing its (geoegnineering) ban, a spokeswoman for the environmental ministry said.
And it's unclear what effect a ban might have. Dr. David Keith argues a ban is unenforceable. "You can't write legislation that says you can't put sulfur in the stratosphere since every commercial flight does that," he told Reuters.
The Clean Air Act: Uncle Sam’s Big Stick
Here’s where the rubber meets the runway. The Clean Air Act (CAA), Section 233 (42 U.S.C. § 7573), says loud and clear:
“No State or political subdivision thereof may adopt or attempt to enforce any standard respecting emissions of any air pollutant from any aircraft or engine thereof” unless it’s identical to federal rules.
Translation? States can’t touch aviation pollution—or the cirrus clouds those contrails spawn. I hammered this point in my 2018 piece on accidental geoengineering. Planes crisscrossing Tennessee skies, leaving persistent contrails that spread into cirrus clouds? That’s not SAI—it’s aviation-induced cloudiness (AIC) or contrail induced cirrus (CIC), and it’s locked under federal control via the FAA and EPA.
Tennessee’s Tenth Amendment flex—states’ rights to protect their people—sounds noble. I’ve argued for it myself in my 2017 anti-geoengineering laws piece. But the Supremacy Clause says federal law trumps state law when they clash. The CAA’s preemption is ironclad—Jon Fleetwood’s Substack post nails it: Tennessee admits its ban can’t touch planes. So, those cirrus clouds keep forming, sunlight keeps dimming, and the state’s hands are tied.
Contrails Aren’t SAI: Stop Mixing Them Up
Let’s get this straight: contrails turning into cirrus clouds ain’t the same as SAI whitening the stratosphere. Contrails happen at 30,000–40,000 feet when jet exhaust hits ice-supersaturated air—basic physics I’ve dissected in my Cirrus Clouds Matter hub. They spread, trap heat at night, cool by day—NASA proved it after 9/11 when flights stopped and temps dropped (see my 2001 history lesson). That’s pollution, sure—carbon black dust, soot, metals like aluminum and barium (check Abegglen’s 2016 study in my doc)—but it’s not geoengineering. It’s short-lived, tropospheric, and fades in hours or days.
SAI? That’s 70,000+ feet, stratosphere-level, designed to linger for months, turning the sky milky white. No commercial jet’s doing that—yet. The “chemtrail” label blurs this line, and it’s killing our activism (I ranted about this here). Call it what it is: aviation pollution. That’s the fight we can win, not some sci-fi SAI boogeyman.
State Laws: Possible, But Limited
Look at the state bills in the file below: 47 of ‘em across 2023–2025. Tennessee’s SB 2691/HB 2063 passed, banning intentional weather mods. Awesome. But most, like Kentucky’s HB506 (2024) or Minnesota’s SF4630 (2024), died in committee. Why? Pushback from feds and industry, plus fuzzy enforcement plans. The 2025 crop—Arizona’s HB2056, Florida’s H0477, Texas’s SB1154—are at 25% progression, meaning they’re still kicking. These can stop local weather modification (cloud seeding, fog dispersal), and I’m all for it—transparency’s key, like I demanded in my EPA speech.
But aviation-induced cirrus? Forget it. None of these bills can touch planes at cruising altitude. The FAA’s got that on lockdown, and the EPA’s too busy dodging real issues—like leaded avgas—to care about contrails (see my 2015 Substack rant). Even if every state passed a ban, those clouds would still form—because states can’t reroute flights or tweak jet fuel. That’s federal turf.
The Real Fight: Aviation Pollution, Not Chemtrail Myths
Here’s my pitch to you chemtrail warriors: refocus. Banning weather mods shows the world we’re pissed—great. It’s enforceable on the ground, and it forces accountability (like my Environmental Modification Accountability Act push). But geoengineering bans? They’re symbolic middle fingers to SAI schemes—like the ones the US and Saudi Arabia blocked at the UN in 2019 (I covered that here). They don’t stop planes from spewing soot and sulfur at 35,000-45,000 feet, wrecking our skies and ozone (my 2017 ozone piece).
The real enemy’s aviation pollution—carbon black dust, sulfuric acid, metals—turning contrails into cirrus that mess with climate and health. We can lobby the EPA and FAA to cut sulfur and metals in jet fuel (like NATO’s Single Fuel Concept I exposed in 2014), eliminate biofuels aka sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) like NASA’s ACCESS tests, here, or force airlines to use contrail avoidance routing so they don’t make clouds at all. That’s winnable. States can’t do it alone, but they can scream loud enough to force federal action—like we did at the 2015 EPA hearing (watch it).
Wrap-Up: Act Smart, Not Loud
So, yeah—state laws banning weather mods? Possible. Enforceable. Do it. Geoengineering bans? They flex the people’s will against SAI, and that’s badass—but don’t expect them to clear the skies of contrail cirrus. The CAA’s got aviation locked down, and Tennessee’s proof: their ban passed, yet the clouds keep coming. Focus on aviation pollution—ditch the “chemtrail” noise—and we might actually win this. I’ve got the receipts, from my Substack to my doc’s citations. Let’s fight the right fight, together.
Check my work at ClimateViewer.com and WeatherModificationHistory.com and join the real battle. Stop following the herd and join us in saving our skies!
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Jim Lee
Call it skypainting, and make it stop
Excellent job here Jim.
Jim has it exactly right. The main problem we have is the pollution from the under-refined jet fuel, and people don't quite get it. There are all kinds of metals in it. They spew toxins on us every second the engine is on. I was recently in Guadalajara Mexico and we deboarded on the runway instead of a skyway. You would not believe the stench of fuel on that tarmac. It just about knocked you out. You don't get to. smell that here in the states.
I was trained as a meteorologist by the US Navy. One of my duties was to launch 'weather balloons' with their attached measurement device, the radiosonde. It gave us, the meteorologists that briefed the pilots on the weather on their mission, the knowledge of where the aircraft should NOT fly because we knew where the contrails would be found. Dead giveaway even for someone not equipped with radar. So if you look in the sky, look for the bright white cirrus clouds. If they are there in view there is a chance for an aircraft to leave a linear cloud, a contrail. If they are not there you will NOT see a persistent contrail. I picked this up again after years of not using it and it has been over a 2 year study to ascertain all of this again, years after using it for my job. Nothing has changed.
The Windy app has a 'Contrail Finder'. I will be doing a video on that in the near future to show you how to use it, with my friend Stella Q on her Youtube channel. We did a video on c-trails in the fall when one of the hurricanes dissipated off of the west coast. And we did 2 videos on clouds in other 'Sky Wise' videos. One was on the cloud types, and the other on how they form.
There were charts before this cloud finder plugin for Windy that we used to determine if contrails were possible, called Appleman charts that the military developed. It was about the survival of aircraft, and it still applies today. The physics have not changed. It is about the conditions in the atmosphere. It is about the temperature and humidity combination.
If I were to interview people on the street today, and point to that bright white feathery cloud in the sky and ask what type of cloud it was maybe 10% of people could answer that question. And if I asked how high it is, in thousands of feet, maybe 1% could answer it. Why? Because very few were taught weather in school. No fault of your.