Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed controversial legislation that bans weather geoengineering and prohibits what conspiracy theorists call “chemtrails.”
The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia, will require the Department of Environmental Protection to track and investigate complaints from residents about suspected weather modification or suspicious activity.
Beginning Oct. 1, operators of publicly owned airports must also submit monthly reports to the Florida Department of Transportation on any aircraft equipped to disperse substances with climate-altering capabilities. Any airport failing to do so would lose state funding.
“The purpose of this bill is to separate fact from fiction,” Garcia said as she supported studying the extent of existing weather modification. She argued the legislation wasn’t meant to perpetuate conspiracy theories, but add scrutiny to possibly disprove them altogether.
The bill also repeals regulations allowing cloud seeding.
Those caught breaking the law could face a $100,000 fine and a five-year sentence under a third-degree felony.
Democrats denounced the bill this Legislative Session, saying it was grounded on an irrational fear.
“This bill is feeding into conspiracy theories, and I think it’s important that we do not legislate under that type of pressure but that we legislate on science, we legislate on fact, we legislate not on fear but on information,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, during the debate earlier this year.
Chemtrails conspiracy theories began circulating in the late ’90s after the U.S. Air Force published a report about weather modification.
Garcia argued her legislation was needed because she said evidence exists that proves weather modification is a long-standing and ongoing practice. She also said her office has received phone calls from residents complaining of unexplained weather phenomena and various health maladies.
“We don’t have a lot of regulations regarding airspace. We place a huge amount of emphasis on water quality control, and I think we should do the same with our air quality,” she said.
SB 56 address weather modification was one of the 13 bills DeSantis signed Friday afternoon.
–Gabrielle Russon, Florida Politics
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Oh the late night hosts can have a blast with this one.
JD says
Notice the provided picture shows a much shorter vapor trail.
A far cry from the chemtrails talked about.
I am an old lady, I know what normal looks like.
It’s far from a conspiracy theory.
I don’t appreciate your approach.
Very opinionated, one sided and unprofessional.
JD
Jim says
Well, I’m glad they passed this great new law! I just checked Google and it says there are about 45,000 flights per day in the USA. I have to give the government credit. 45k flights over 50 states all day every day and, somehow, the government has been able to keep it secret that they are dosing the planes with some unidentified chemical(s) that is affecting the weather and our health. How they’ve kept this a secret is beyond me. Think of the hundreds of airports in the USA and somehow the government has figured out how to get these secret chemicals into the fuel (or some other ingenious way) so the weather will be affected. And they’ve been able to do this under both Republican and Democratic administrations! Is it the military? NSA? CIA? FBI? DOE? EPA? HHS? Aliens? Mexicans? Canadians? Whoever it is, they’re good. But you might say, no, it’s not at ALL the airports and ALL the planes. Just some of them. So, if that’s the case, how do they decide? Based on politics? Race? Religion? Sexual Orientation? Red State/Blue State? There’s got to be a pattern in here somewhere.
Anyway, it’s been a heck of a run for somebody. There must be hundreds of thousands of people involved from oil refineries to the person fueling the plane, not to mention the scientists who came up with this method and the people in charge who thought this up, financed it and are keeping on top of things.
Let’s get these records generated, filed, tallied and studied. Let’s get to the bottom of this conspiracy! From now on when I look up and see a plane chemtrail blooming across the sky, I’ll thank God that Ron DeSantis has enacted this legislation! Possibly the most important thing the Florida Legislature did this session.
I’d go on but I’ve got to figure out how to come up with enough money to pay my home insurance! I’m curious as to why nobody in the Legislature thought that was as important as this chemtrail conspiracy!
Ray W, says
What a coincidence!
On May 27th, MIT researchers published a paper in MIT News about an innovative fuel cell design that might be capable of providing enough electrical energy to power short-hop commercial aircraft, if scaled up into commercial production.
The prototype fuel cell produced by the research team is not a battery that can be recharged by plugging it into an electricity source.
Sodium metal, derived from sodium chloride (table salt) liquifies at 98 degrees Celsius; it is then loaded into a cannister that can be inserted into the fuel cell.
To produce electricity, the liquified sodium metal is then exposed to oxygen atoms that permeate through a ceramic electrolyte that separates the sodium metal from the surrounding air. A naturally occurring chemical reaction takes place between the oxygen atoms and the sodium metal molecules depletes (eats away at) the metal and creates sodium oxide as an emission waste product.
When the liquified sodium metal is depleted, the cannister is removed from the fuel cell and refilled with a new reserve of liquified sodium metal before being reinserted into the fuel cell.
When the sodium oxide emission is released into the atmosphere as a form of exhaust, it then naturally soaks up (combines with) some of the carbon dioxide that naturally exists in the atmosphere.
The new sodium oxide/carbon dioxide compound, when then exposed to any moisture naturally in the atmosphere, naturally forms sodium hydroxide, which then readily and naturally combines with more carbon dioxide to form sodium carbonate, which then readily and naturally forms sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).
According to the lead researcher, “[t]here is this natural cascade of reactions that happens when you start with sodium metal. … It’s all spontaneous. We don’t have to do anything to make it happen, we just have to fly the airplane.”
If the sodium bicarbonate happens to fall into ocean water, as opposed to falling onto land, it automatically de-acidifies the ocean water, thereby offsetting acids produced by burning fossil fuels.
The authors of the article pointed out that prior to the time of our switching over from leaded to unleaded gasoline, companies produced as much as 200,000 tons of sodium metal per year in order to make the additive, tetraethyl lead, which fact proves that sodium metal was once safely produced at scale and that it was then safely handled and distributed around the U.S.
According to the authors, current liquid-state lithium-ion batteries at full charge hold up to 300 watt-hours of energy per kilogram.
I understand from other readings that solid-state lithium-ion batteries promise up to 600 watt-hours of energy per kilogram.
Liquid sodium metal fuel cells, in theory, offer up to 1500 watt-hours of energy per kilogram. If commercialized, the technology is expected to produce 1200 watt-hours of energy per kilogram, more than enough to power electric aircraft, which require at least 1000 watt-hours per kilogram to power short-distance flights.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
A prototype fuel cell that if commercialized at scale should provide enough electricity to power commercial aircraft without use of jet fuel? A fuel cell filled with a consumable metal that is derived from one of the more abundant and inexpensive materials on the planet, i.e., table salt? Exhaust produced as the metal is chemically consumed to produce electricity then removes excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? After removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the newly formed baking soda then de-acidifies ocean water when it falls from the sky?
Win, win, win, win!
But you can’t fly such a plane over Florida anymore, because it truly produces chemtrails that might change the weather. Maybe the bill can be rewritten to distinguish between good chemtrails and bad chemtrails.
Oy vey!
Andy says
Nazis love to make policy based on fake information! This is gop 101. Make stuff up, then make actual policy based on your lies! See who says you need “congress “to start an unprovoked war!! Haha plenty of money for parades and bombs but no money for hungry kids , suicide hotlines, or cancer research! Orange terror is terrorizing people all over the world!!
Dirty officials says
Haha what an ignorant fool! Sounds like another gop con! ron the dumbass should maybe look to science instead of banning it! How much money does rons wife’s company get from the legislation?
Pig Farmer says
There truly is no hope for the human race. Collectively we are too stupid to survive.
The dude says
Ahhh… meatball Ron a man whose pudding fingers were too weird, even for MAGA…
Still trying to get a seat at that MAGA table anyways, by outlawing things that don’t exist to appease the kooks and extremists who reliably vote here in Floriduh.
It’s peak MAGA, even if he’s been excommunicated from the cult.
Embarrassing… simply embarrassing.
Wow says
Lunacy.
Deborah Coffey says
Shouldn’t DeSantis have been indicted, tried, convicted and thrown in prison by now?
James Rossow says
I want the exclusive tin hat concession!
Michael J Cocchiola says
WE ARE IN DESANTIS’ WONDERLAND!
This is almost unimaginable. We are being led down DeSantis’ rat hole, where reality goes to die. No white knights. Just MAGAs running around backwards (better to see the truth coming and duck it) trying to find the disappearing orange ass.
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be MAGAs.
CH says
Oh so now we are interested in clean air and climate change? Anybody have a problem with rockets exploding on the launching pad and getting nothing more than an “oops” from those responsible? Where do you think those chemicals go?
Pogo says
@Art Bell
https://www.google.com/search?q=art+bell
… is laughing his ass off in hell.
Steve says
Magats will believe anything 😂😄😁
PS@ RAY W. Missed You Man
Palmcoaster says
There is NO Actual Scientific Facts that state Aircrafts Produce Chem trails that seed Clouds for Weather. The Trails you see when a Boeing Passes Over is from Exhaust with extreme freezing conditions outside the aircraft.
It is the Biggest Conspiracy and What they should do is help Homeowners,
Renters, Bringing Down Food Prices, Gas Prices, Medical and helping Those Who Need Life Saving Medications, the Homeless and the Low Income Famalies.
MAGA Loves to Spread Untruths just like THEIR SUPREME LEADER WHO CONSTANTLY LIES AND SPREAD NO TRUTHS.