Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano made headlines recently when he floated legislation that would ban chemtrails, which aren’t real and only exist in the minds of unhinged conspiracy theorists. His bill wasn’t entirely original, though, as it was modeled after a similar bill that recently passed the state senate in Tennessee. As Substack’s Radical Reports reports, these are far from the only chemtrail bills being introduced around the country, and wouldn’t you know it, the sponsors are all Republicans.
In Rhode Island, State Senator Elaine Morgan introduced SB 2540, which would “prohibit stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), solar radiation modification (SRM) experimentation, and other hazardous weather engineering activities.” And in Kentucky, State Representative Steve Rawlings introduced HB 506, which would ban “any form of geoengineering activities,” including “intentional manipulation of the environment, through an atmospheric polluting activity, to effect changes to the earth’s atmosphere or surface.”
There’s also Minnesota State Representative Jeff Dotseth’s HB 4687, which would ban “polluting atmospheric activity or use an unmarked or unidentified aircraft or other vehicle or facility.” In New Hampshire, State Representative Jason Gerhard’s HB1700 would outlaw the “intentional release of polluting emissions, including cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency, and microwave radiation.” And in South Dakota, State Senator Tom Pischke’s SB 215 would ban the “intentional release of polluting emissions into the atmosphere by cloud seeding, weather modification, excessive electromagnetic radio frequency and microwave radiation.
The good news is, most of these bills don’t appear to have enough support to become law, although it’s still worrying that enough people in Tennessee’s state senate buy into the chemtrails conspiracy theory enough to actually pass the bill. Since this is the Republican party we’re talking about, though, you can’t discount the possibility that banning chemtrails could quickly become a mainstream position.
While it’s never fun to have unhinged conspiracy theorists in state government, we can’t help but wonder if perhaps we should be encouraging lawmakers to pass these bills. There’s no factual basis for any of their claims, but if this is the one way we can get Republicans to care about air pollution, maybe it’s time to reach across the aisle and give them what they want. We’ll ban all chemtrails in exchange for stronger clean air laws in general and a massive investment in public transit. Deal?