GeoLawWatch: Tracking Weather & Climate Legislation

Bill summary (AI generated)

Senate Bill 1021 (SB1021), introduced in the 2025 legislative session of the 60th Oklahoma Legislature and authored by Senator Jett, is a measure designed to establish a total ban on intentional atmospheric modification within the state and to grant the state military specific powers for enforcement. The bill is scheduled to become effective on November 1, 2025.
New Laws and Key Prohibitions
SB1021 primarily creates one new section of law (Section 2-5-131 of Title 27A) and repeals the entirety of the existing state regulatory framework.
1. Establishing a Total Ban
The bill creates a new prohibition against any intentional activity aimed at altering the atmosphere within Oklahoma's borders. This prohibition specifically applies to:
• The intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus into the atmosphere.
• The ban is predicated on the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of sunlight.
This language is broad enough to cover various types of deliberate atmospheric manipulation:
• Weather Modification: This includes attempts to modify regional or local weather patterns, such as cloud seeding, which usually involves adding small particles to the lower atmosphere.
• Solar Geoengineering/SRM: This covers activities intended to modify the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface to cool the planet. This includes techniques like Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), which involves adding small reflective particles (like sulfur dioxide, SO2) to the upper atmosphere (stratosphere).
2. Repealing the Oklahoma Weather Modification Act
SB1021 proposes to repeal all existing statutes that defined and regulated weather modification in Oklahoma (82 O.S. 2021, Sections 1087.1 through 1087.20, and related sections 1801.1, 1801.2, and 1801.4).
This action would effectively eliminate the state’s current licensing and regulatory system. The repealed sections include the requirements for:
• Obtaining a license and a permit from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board to engage in weather modification.
• Paying the $100.00 license fee.
• Publishing a required notice of intention prior to undertaking an operation.
• The original penalties for violations, which were a misdemeanor punishable by a fine between $100.00 and $1,000.00.
By repealing these sections, SB1021 ensures that no entity can legally obtain state authorisation to modify the weather, temperature, or sunlight within Oklahoma.
New Enforcement and Investigation Powers
SB1021 specifies that the Governor may utilize the Oklahoma Air National Guard to physically enforce the new prohibition. The bill empowers the Governor to direct the National Guard to take the following actions against aircraft violating the law:
• Interdict the aircraft.
• Document identification tail numbers.
• Secure photographic evidence.
• Sample aerosolized effluents or particulate.
• Utilize mass spectrometers and other appropriate scientific instrumentation.
• Engage with violating aircraft to escort them to the nearest airport for investigation, securing of evidence, and documentation of violation.
This enforcement mechanism focuses on immediate military-level interception and scientific evidence collection to halt and document atmospheric violations in progress.