Wyoming : 2025 Regular Session : BILL HB0208
Atmospheric geoengineering prohibition.
Sponsor: Rep Marlene Brady & Rep Kevin Campbell & Rep Scott Heiner & Rep Rachel Rodriguez-Williams & Rep Reuben Tarver & Sen Robert Ide & Sen Troy McKeown & Sen Laura Pearson
Bill Details
AN ACT relating to environmental quality; providing legislative findings; prohibiting atmospheric geoengineering as specified; requiring testing; providing penalties; making conforming amendments; specifying applicability; and providing for an effective date.
GeoLawWatch Bill Summary
Prohibition: No person may intentionally inject, release, or disperse any chemicals, chemical compounds, apparatus, or other substances into Wyoming's atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting or changing temperature, weather, or sunlight intensity.
Testing Requirements: The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality must test air quality at sites involved in geoengineering or when it receives reports of possible violations. When feasible, testing should use transmission electron microscopy and measure the total metal concentration in precipitation.
Whistleblower Protection: No one, including government agencies, may retaliate, harass, discipline, or discriminate against anyone who reports a suspected violation in good faith or shares information for an investigation.
Grandfathering Clause: The act does not impair any contract or agreement that is publicly disclosed (or subject to public disclosure), entered into with the State of Wyoming before the effective date.
Penalties: The bill does not specify any penalties. It creates the prohibition but does not set criminal or civil consequences for breaking it.
Unusual Provisions: The bill requires transmission electron microscopy for testing, which is a highly technical detail for legislation. The grandfathering clause seems intended to protect current cloud seeding contracts.
History
House Bill 208 was assigned its bill number on January 15, 2025, and introduced on January 21, when it was referred to the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee (H09). The committee took no action on the bill before the February 7 deadline for reporting bills to the Committee of the Whole (the full House sitting as a working body to debate and amend legislation). Under Wyoming House Rule 5-4, bills that do not receive a committee report by this cutoff are automatically returned to the sponsoring legislator, effectively killing them for the session. The bill was officially declared dead in committee on March 3, 2025.
The bill's quiet death in committee likely reflects the awkward fiscal reality revealed in the Legislative Service Office's analysis: Wyoming's own Water Development Commission operates an extensive cloud seeding program that would be prohibited under the bill's broad language. The grandfathering clause for existing publicly disclosed contracts may have been an attempt to preserve the state's program. Still, the fiscal note nonetheless projected a loss of $570,000 in annual partner contributions and $150,000 in site decommissioning costs—creating a significant obstacle to advancing the legislation.
- Wed 15 Jan 2025 Bill Number Assigned
- Thu 16 Jan 2025 Received for Introduction
- Tue 21 Jan 2025 Introduced and Referred to H09 - Minerals
- Fri 07 Feb 2025 No report prior to CoW Cutoff
- Mon 03 Mar 2025 H:Died in Committee Returned Bill Pursuant to HR 5-4
Consolidated Bill Text
HOUSE BILL NO. HB0208
Atmospheric geoengineering prohibition.
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Tarver, Brady, Campbell, K, Heiner and Rodriguez-Williams and Senator(s) Ide, McKeown and Pearson
A BILL
for
AN ACT relating to environmental quality; providing legislative findings; prohibiting atmospheric geoengineering as specified; requiring testing; providing penalties; making conforming amendments; specifying applicability; and providing for an effective date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
Section 1.
(a) The legislature finds that:
(i) The federal government, its agencies and other entities acting on behalf of the federal government have conducted or will conduct geoengineering experiments by intentionally disbursing chemicals and other substances into the atmosphere. These geoengineering experiments may be occurring within the state of Wyoming;
(ii) The risks to human health and environmental safety from broad-scale geoengineering are currently not well understood;
(iii) The Wyoming department of environmental quality is responsible for monitoring air, land and water quality, including regulating emissions into the air, land and water within Wyoming to ensure the safety of the public while planning the development, use, reclamation, preservation and enhancement of the air, land and water resources of the state;
(iv) It is the intent of the legislature to protect the public health and welfare of Wyoming residents while allowing all authorized activities permitted under state law.
Section 2. W.S. 35-11-2201 is created to read:
ARTICLE 22 GEOENGINEERING
35-11-2201. Atmospheric engineering prohibited; testing required; retaliation prohibited.
(a) No person shall intentionally inject, release or disperse by any means any chemicals, chemical compounds, apparatus or other substances within Wyoming into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting or changing temperature, weather or the intensity of the sunlight.
(b) The department shall test the air quality at sites subject to geoengineering or upon receiving a report of a potential violation of subsection (a) of this section. Testing under this subsection shall, if possible, utilize transmission electron microscopy and shall determine total metals concentration in precipitation.
(c) No person or governmental entity shall retaliate or otherwise harass, discipline or discriminate against any person because the person reported, in good faith, a suspected violation of subsection (a) of this section or provided information related to an investigation of a suspected violation of subsection (a) of this section.
Section 3. W.S. 35-11-103(a)(xiii) is amended to read:
35-11-103. Definitions.
(a) For the purpose of this act, unless the context otherwise requires:
(xiii) "This act" means W.S. 35-11-101 through 35-11-403, 35-11-405, 35-11-406, 35-11-408 through 35-11-1106, 35-11-1414 through 35-11-1432, 35-11-1601 through 35-11-1613, 35-11-1701, 35-11-1801 through 35-11-1803, 35-11-2001 through 35-11-2004, and 35-11-2101 and 35-11-2201.
Section 4. Nothing in this act shall be construed to impair or alter any contract or agreement that is publicly disclosed or subject to public disclosure and that is entered into with the state of Wyoming before the effective date of this act.
Section 5. This act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.
Supplementary documents
Fiscal Statement
Atmospheric geoengineering prohibition
25LSO-0247, 1.0
HB0208
FISCAL NOTE
NON-ADMINISTRATIVE IMPACT: Anticipated Revenue Decrease
WATER DEVELOPMENT I
FY 2026: ($570,000)
FY 2027: ($570,000)
FY 2028: ($570,000)
Source of revenue decrease: The decrease in revenue would come as result of the prohibition of our annual Cloud Seeding Operations. This prohibition would result in the loss of grant money received from funding partners outside of the State's annual appropriation. These funding partners include entities from the Lower Colorado River Basin (California's Six Agency Committee, Central Arizona Water Conservation District, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority), the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities and local southwestern Wyoming stakeholders (Green River-Rock Springs-Sweetwater County Joint Powers Water Board, Rocky Mountain Power and the Wyoming Mining Association).
Assumptions: If the Wyoming Water Development Commission's (WWDC) annual Cloud Seeding Operations, including the ground-based program to augment snowpack in the Colorado River Basin (Wind River and Sierra Madre Mountain Ranges) and aerial program to augment snowpack in the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre Mountain Ranges were prohibited, the WWDC would lose the annual contributions from funding partners outside of the State's annual appropriation. The decreased revenue would be comprised of $500,000 from entities in the Lower Colorado River Basin, $50,000 from the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities and $20,000 from local southwestern Wyoming stakeholders. These are annual contributions.
NON-ADMINISTRATIVE IMPACT: Anticipated Expenditure Increase
WATER DEVELOPMENT I
FY 2026: $150,000
FY 2027: $0
FY 2028: $0
Source of Expenditure Increase: The increased expenditure is due to the reclamation of 13 sites/stations used in WWDC's annual ground-based Cloud Seeding Operations. A prohibition of the WWDC's annual Cloud Seeding Operations would require the reclamation of these ground-based generator sites including the removal of equipment (scaffolding, 20-foot tower, burner assembly, tanks, batteries, satellite modem and computer boards).
Assumptions: The latest estimates from WWDC's contractor indicate a cost of roughly $150,000 to complete this equipment removal and reclamation of sites. The WWDC would require additional spending authority from Water Development Account I. This request for additional spending authority is included in the WWDC's Agency Estimate of Administrative Impact indicated below.
NOTICE - AGENCY ESTIMATE OF ADMINISTRATIVE IMPACT REQUESTED
This bill has administrative impact that appears to increase duties or responsibilities of one or more state agencies and may impact agency spending or staffing requirements. As introduced, the bill does not modify any state agency budget or current personnel authorizations.
The following state agencies will be asked to provide their estimate of the administrative fiscal impact prior to the first committee meeting held to consider the bill:
- Dept. of Environmental Quality
- Water Development Commission