Geoengineering Bills by Year
| Bill # | Details | Effective | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Illinois (2023-2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| SB3095 | WEATHER MODIFICATION-SEEDING | Sine die | ||
| A word-for-word reintroduction of Senator Anderson's failed 2023 weather modification ban, which met the same fate in a different committee - twice postponed, then returned to Assignments, where it died without a vote despite an attempted amendment. |
Last update Tue 7 Jan 2025 |
|||
| Note: Twice, assigned to Executive committee, and returned to assignments until sine die | ||||
| SB0134 | WEATHER MODIFICATION-SEEDING | Sine die | ||
| A minimalist two-page bill that would ban all weather modification in Illinois but provides no penalties, no enforcement agency, and no mechanism for compliance, making it a symbolic prohibition rather than an enforceable law. |
Last update Tue 7 Jan 2025 |
|||
| Note: Assigned to Environment and Conservation, returned to assignments - no further action taken. | ||||
|
Kentucky (2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| HB506 | AN ACT relating to geoengineering. | Died in committee | ||
| Kentucky's HB 506 represents the most aggressive geoengineering prohibition attempted in the 2024 legislative cycle, combining felony criminal penalties with a $500,000 minimum daily civil penalty, mandatory citizen reporting requirements, and provisions purporting to prohibit federal and international atmospheric activities over the state. |
Last update Fri 9 Feb 2024 |
|||
| Note: Remained in Commitee on Commitees | ||||
| SB217 | AN ACT relating to geoengineering. | Died in committee | ||
| Kentucky's SB 217 is a word-for-word Senate duplicate of HB 506, representing a coordinated bicameral push for the state's most aggressive geoengineering prohibition and, notably, the only version to advance beyond the procedural gateway committee during the 2024 session. |
Last update Tue 20 Feb 2024 |
|||
| Note: Remained in Natural Resources & Energy committee | ||||
|
Minnesota (2023-2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| HF4687 | Harmful atmospheric activity prohibited, and penalties provided. | Died in committee | ||
| Minnesota's HF 4687 goes far beyond typical weather modification bans by establishing a felony offence with $500,000 fines, mandating an elaborate citizen reporting system with 2-hour emergency response requirements, setting specific limits on electromagnetic radiation, and asserting Tenth Amendment authority to override federal approvals for atmospheric activities. The bill uniquely requires officials to actively encourage public monitoring and grants immediate cease-and-desist powers with National Guard enforcement authority. |
Last update Thu 11 Apr 2024 |
|||
| Note: Remained in Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy committee | ||||
| SF4630 | Certain harmful atmospheric activity prohibition | Died in committee | ||
| Minnesota's SF 4630 goes far beyond typical weather modification bans by establishing a felony offence with $500,000 fines, mandating an elaborate citizen reporting system with 2-hour emergency response requirements, setting specific limits on electromagnetic radiation, and asserting Tenth Amendment authority to override federal approvals for atmospheric activities. The bill uniquely requires officials to actively encourage public monitoring and grants immediate cease-and-desist powers with National Guard enforcement authority. |
Last update Thu 11 Apr 2024 |
|||
| Note: Remained in Environment, Climate, and Legacy committee | ||||
|
Missouri (2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| SB1318 | Establishes the Freedom to Farm Act and modifies provisions relating to the Governor's emergency powers and agricultural operations as nuisances | Died in committee | ||
| A near-verbatim reintroduction of the previous session's failed "Freedom to Farm Act," now sponsored by Senator Moon instead of Senator Carter, with only the licensing cutoff date updated from 2023 to 2024. The weather modification ban remains buried within a broader agricultural deregulation package. |
Last update Thu 25 Jan 2024 |
|||
| Note: Remained in Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee | ||||
|
New Hampshire (2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| HB1700 | Prohibiting the intentional release of polluting emissions, including cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency, and microwave radiation and making penalties for violation of such prohibition. | Inexpedient to Legislate | ||
| This predecessor to HB 764 combined geoengineering prohibition with electromagnetic radiation limits and a mandatory citizen reporting system deputizing the public as atmospheric monitors. The bill was decisively rejected 315-58 on the House floor after a 16-3 negative committee vote, representing one of the most lopsided defeats for geoengineering legislation in any state. |
Last update Thu 8 Feb 2024 |
|||
| Note: House voted Inexpedient to Legislate; the bill died. | ||||
|
New Mexico (2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| HB130 | Cloud Seeding Pilot Program | Died in chamber | ||
| New Mexico's cloud seeding pilot project would have addressed one of western water law's thorniest questions—whether artificially enhanced precipitation belongs to existing rights holders—while providing state liability protection for cloud seeding activities. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate despite clearing committee. |
Last update Wed 14 Feb 2024 |
|||
|
North Dakota (2023-2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| HB1166 | State funding requirements for county weather modification operations; and to provide a penalty. | Died in chamber | ||
| North Dakota House Bill 1166 passed the House in 2023 but failed in the Senate requiring cloud seeding operations to stop when seeded storms cross into counties without active weather modification programs and restructuring county weather modification authority procedures. |
Last update Mon 3 Apr 2023 |
|||
| Note: House passed, Senate committee neutral, full Senate failed. | ||||
|
Ohio (2023-2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| HB529 | Enact Atmosphere Protection Act | Died in committee | ||
| Ohio's 2024 Atmosphere Protection Act takes an unusual regulatory approach by directing the Ohio EPA to establish public monitoring and reporting systems for solar radiation modification, essentially crowdsourcing detection before issuing cease-and-desist orders. The bill carries harsh penalties but notably limits its scope to SRM only, without addressing cloud seeding. |
Last update Tue 21 May 2024 |
|||
| Note: Remained in Energy and Natural Resources committee | ||||
|
Pennsylvania (2023-2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| SB1264 | Prohibiting solar radiation modification, cloud seeding and polluting atmospheric activity within this Commonwealth; imposing duties on the Pennsylvania State Police and sheriffs; and imposing penalties. | Died in committee | ||
| Pennsylvania's Clean Air Preservation Act creates a sweeping felony prohibition on atmospheric interventions with comprehensive definitions covering everything from cloud seeding to electromagnetic fields and artificial intelligence, empowering sheriffs and State Police to issue binding cease-and-desist orders against any entity, including federal agencies, with minimum penalties of $500,000 and two years imprisonment per day of violation. |
Last update Thu 20 Jun 2024 |
|||
| Note: Remained in Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee | ||||
|
Rhode Island (2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| H7295 | Establishes regulations to prohibit stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), solar radiation modification (SRM) experimentation, and other hazardous weather engineering activities. | Held for further study | ||
|
Last update Tue 6 Feb 2024 |
||||
| S2540 | Establishes regulations to prohibit stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), solar radiation modification (SRM) experimentation, and other hazardous weather engineering activities. | Held for further study | ||
|
Last update Wed 20 Mar 2024 |
||||
|
South Dakota (2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| SB215 | Prohibit the intentional release of polluting emissions into the atmosphere by cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency and microwave radiation and providing enforcement and penalties for violations. | Died in chamber | ||
| South Dakota's 2024 geoengineering bill would have deputised county sheriffs as atmospheric enforcement agents with authority to ground aircraft, invoke the National Guard, and issue cease-and-desist orders against federal operations—while establishing two-hour emergency response requirements for citizen reports of excessive electromagnetic radiation. |
Last update Thu 8 Feb 2024 |
|||
|
Tennessee (2023-2024 Regular Session)
|
||||
| HB2063 | AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 39; Title 42; Title 43; Title 44; Title 55; Title 58; Title 59; Title 60; Title 65; Title 68 and Title 69, relative to environmental protection. | 1 Jul 2024 | Substituted by SB2691 | |
| Tennessee transformed a technical caption bill about permit timelines into a comprehensive atmospheric intervention ban through floor amendment, with enforcement tied to existing air quality violations rather than creating new criminal statutes. |
Last update Wed 17 Apr 2024 |
|||
| Note: Substituted by SB2691. | ||||
| SB2691 | AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 39; Title 42; Title 43; Title 44; Title 55; Title 58; Title 59; Title 60; Title 65; Title 68 and Title 69, relative to environmental protection. | 1 Jul 2024 | Passed | |
| Tennessee's geoengineering ban includes legislative findings asserting that federal atmospheric experiments may occur in the state, while its own fiscal analysis assumes no such activities are happening or will occur, creating an unusual disconnect between the stated justification and the projected impact. |
Last update Wed 17 Apr 2024 |
|||
| Note: Tennessee SB2691 passed both chambers and became Public Chapter 709 effective July 1, 2024. | ||||