(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH)-  An Iowa Senate subcommittee advanced a bill Monday that would make it a crime to engage in any acts attempting to alter the weather. Senate Study Bill 3010 bans “geoengineering” activities for acts intending to “manipulate or alter the weather.” The legislation specifically points to activities like “cloud seeding,” “weather engineering” and “polluting atmospheric activity” — meaning the deliberate discharge of materials, including chemical substances, electromagnetic fields or pulses, sound waves or light pollution — with the intention to alter weather.

The measure would create a Class D criminal felony for people engaging in these activities, punishable by up to five years of incarceration and fines between $1,025 and $10,245. The bill states each day a person commits a violation of this ban counts as a separate offense. It also specifies that if an entity is suspected of committing “geoengineering” activities, the Iowa Department of Public Safety is directed to issue a cease and desist letter.

The measure is similar to a bill advanced through the Iowa House committee process during the 2025 session, House File 927. The two measures have slightly different language, with the House language prohibiting specifically “intentional emission of air contaminants into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of sunlight.” The House measure would not impose criminal penalties, but would have required the Environmental Protection Commission to adopt emergency rules related to air quality that would address these practices.

Sen. Charlie McClintock, R-Alburnett, who introduced the Senate bill, said the measure was “the most compact version and the most reasonable version we could put together” to address some constituents’ concerns about cloud seeding and other alleged weather-altering methods. Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Fairfield, told senators at the subcommittee meeting he appreciated the measure being brought forward, and said he believed it was important for the state to establish rules on how these practices can take place.

Shipley said currently, “if I wanted to say, deploy a cloud seeding program over Van Buren County, there’s nothing in law, to my knowledge that’s currently preventing me from doing that, or any sort of regulation of oversight of that sort of activity.” He pointed to a 2025 law signed Florida as an example of what could be brought up in Iowa.

One of the main drivers of conversations on geoengineering and related practices is the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory, which posits some aircraft are spraying certain chemicals that impact weather patterns as well as people’s health and fertility. Advocates with groups like the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers spoke against the bill, saying the proposal is referencing and validating “pseudoscience” instead of addressing real environmental concerns.

One confirmed practice referenced in the bill is cloud seeding, where certain particles, like silver iodide crystals and salt, are added to existing clouds in order to cause rain or snow to fall that would not occur naturally. While there are not reports of the widespread use of cloud seeding in Iowa, this practice has been used in several western states to address drought or minimize hail damage.

Grayson Gee with the Rainmaker Technology Corporation, a U.S.-based cloud seeding startup, spoke in opposition to the inclusion of cloud seeding in the measure targeted at geoengineering practices. Gee said cloud seeding has been “researched, regulated and transparently conducted in the United States for over 70 years,” and that it does not change weather patterns outside of encouraging precipitation.

He said other proposed technologies related to geoengineering, like solar radiation modification or other stratospheric aerosol injection, are not well-studied or researched and have the potential to cause serious harm. Gee said it was important to distinguish between these ideas, which he called “conspiratorial and, frankly, somewhat concerning,” and existing practices like cloud seeding.

The measure was passed out of subcommittee unanimously. Sen. Izaah Knox, D-Des Moines, said he supported the bill moving forward as “there needs to be more conversation about this,” though he was not sure the current language is the correct approach. McClintock said there are still many steps before the bill would become law, but said he believed lawmakers are moving with “due diligence” to address Iowans’ concerns on the issue.