By Representative Monty Fritts [R-Kingston-District 32] –
I am convinced we must stop all weather modification and geoengineering activities. I am also convinced that it is foundationally immoral to attempt a restructuring of our weather for either experimentation or profit.
I am further convinced that no legal basis exists for allowing companies, entities, nor governments to intentionally pollute our atmosphere with chemicals and compounds with the express purpose of reflecting the intensity of sunlight, increasing or decreasing precipitation, modifying temperatures, or affecting any other designed attributes of created nature simply to attempt climate change.
In the 113th General Assembly we successfully offered HB 2063 to become a part of our Tennessee clean air law. That law now simply prohibits intentionally inject[ing], release[ing], or disperse[ing], by any means, chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has authority to administer this law and is generally authorized to fine up to $10k for violations of the act.
This year’s bill will accomplish the following:
- Assign criminal penalty for conducting geoengineering or knowing providing chemicals for geoengineering
- Increases civil penalty from $10k to $100k
- Assign prosecutorial responsibility to District Attorneys and TN Attorney General
- Leverage authority already given the Governor (TCA 58-2-116) to better understand what weather modification is taking place and provide such as necessary to the prosecutorial authorities
This year in the 114th General Assembly, Representative Lynn and I have introduced legislation in the House, and Senator Bowling in the Senate that will add specific criminal and civil penalties for those who violate the aforementioned portion of our clean air law to include those who knowingly provide the chemicals or substances enabling this immoral activity.
Additionally, the proposed law will assign prosecutorial authority to both the local District Attorneys and the Tennessee Attorney General. This portion of the proposed law leverages a portion of TCA 58-2-116 which has for some time (circa 2002) given the Governor’s Office and agencies the authority “shall make studies of emergency mitigation-related matters” and this code specifically calls out weather modification with flood plain management, fire prevention, and air quality. Again “weather modification” is specifically called out ion this two-decade old law.
As in all things American, the citizen, company, or entity is innocent until proven guilty. The responsibility rests upon the State to prove guilt. TDEC has helped lead us to where we are today in leading the nation to curtail and eventually stop this immoral and now illegal practice of geoengineering / weather modification.
Now is the time for leadership by the Executive Department in Tennessee. We have law on the books that empowers the Governor to “direct” these actions. Keep in mind the current code uses a “shall” statement saying basically that the citizens of Tennessee expect these studies to take place. The newly proposed law, HB 1112, connects the studies that the Executive Department is already responsible for conducting with a review and act as appropriate by our local District Attorneys and Tennessee Attorney General.
I often offer these two analogies when discussing this topic. The first analogy is related to knowingly spreading toxic or hazardous materials. The second is regarding technology and public-political understanding of such.
If a farmer in Arkansas, the Razorback State, were hauling pig waste East on I-40 into Tennessee and accidentally through leakage creating a hazardous waste issue would we address it? If tractor trailers were accidentally spilling hundreds of liters of a smelly and perhaps unhealthy liquid all along I-40 and through Memphis and Jackson as a part of otherwise lawful commerce, would we demand that the haulers stop the spill of the waste along our roadways?
I think the answer is clearly yes. If we would enact and enforce controls for this pig waste, why would we not stop such an effort if it were an intentional release solely for depositing the possibly hazardous waste along our roadways, onto our soil, into our waterways, and in the very air that our grandchildren breathe?
For analogy two, I will simply ask the reader if they realize there are entities who count and control sub-atomic elements for the purpose of generating large amounts of heat. Sub-atomic particles are smaller than atoms and actually help make up the atomic structure. These particles are smaller than a single molecule of water, molecules not droplet. For reference, a single droplet of water contains an estimated 1.67 x 10 21molecules. That is 1.67 sextillion molecules.
These entities have been conducting these count and control of sub-atomic particles for decades on Tennessee soil. So, we are counting items that small and controlling them to generate tremendous amounts of heat energy. Does this sound like science fiction? Well, it is not. Each day at Watts Bar Unit 1 and 2 we count and control, if you will, the neutrons released by Uranium 235 atoms to sustain a nuclear reaction and maintain a K-effective of 1. Meaning the ratio between neutrons produced versus those lost in the previous generation. A generation of neutrons could be assumed to be less than 1 x 10 -10 seconds.
The second analogy is offered for two reasons. First is that Almighty God created man with a tremendous ability for ingenuity. I believe we have and can develop tremendous technologies. The nuclear principles I described above were originated from pencil, paper, and brilliant people.
Secondly, man uses his ingenuity for good and evil. Certainly, clean nuclear power from Watts Bar 1 helps millions of Tennesseans to have a better life through electrical energy generation (kilowatts) and job creation. Just because you do not understand a specific technological capability doesn’t mean it isn’t real technology.
If we can count and control neutron populations within a system, then we can likely deposit nanoparticle aluminum or other material into the atmosphere to block the sun’s rays. If in the 1940s people developed technologies to create explosions equal to thousands and tens of thousands of tons of TNT and in the same period began modifying weather, then today’s technical capabilities should not surprise us.
If in 1967 the United States Department of State, Office of the Historian reported on the devastating impact of Project Popeye, a weather modification weaponized in Southeast Asia, why would we be surprised at the technology today? And should we be concerned that the technologies may have greatly advanced and likely be used intentionally for both good and evil?
Any material that we deposit in our atmosphere will eventually find its way back into our oceans, rivers, soil, and the air our children breathe. If that material is the combustion exhaust of an aircraft resultant from the burning of petroleum to propel the aircraft, then there is likely an advantage of commerce that benefits all. If the dispersion is for the sole or express purpose of reflecting the sunlight from the Earth’s surface as is the case with Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) then shouldn’t we the people have a say in the matter. We regulate emissions from legitimate industry, why shouldn’t we address what is a global experiment with our health? Every chemical we put into the atmosphere will also find its way into our food supply. These are the reasons I am pursuing this legislation again.
And finally, let’s go back to my pig farm waste analogy and responsibility for ethical and moral commerce between states in America. The way it has been explained to me is clouds form primarily in the troposphere. Large bodies of water help to equip a moisture content in that portion of the atmosphere. Those clouds are the result of the sun’s heat energy causing an evaporative process where fresh water is stored and carried by clouds. Rain then deposits the moisture as the cloud travels around the Earth. Rain or snow falls as the clouds reach a saturation point and depend upon atmospheric temperatures.
Today’s cloud seeding efforts in many U.S. States seek to optimize rainfall or snowfall in their respective geographies. I think we must ask, is Tennessee disadvantaged by a western state “harvesting” more moisture from a cloud than would have naturally occurred? That is the business model for the cloud seeding entity after all. Someone pays them to get more snow or rain in a particular region. If that is the model and if such is even slightly successful is there not a downstream disadvantage. Are we in Tennessee suffering economically from the success of cloud seeding to our west? Should we address this possible harm to Tennessee agriculture and commerce?
I believe Almighty God is certainly capable of managing the weather. Scripturally, we are told it rains on the just and the unjust. We are also told that precipitation is a blessing from God for our crops, farms, and overall health. Almighty God’s withholding of rain was often a punishment for sin. At a basic moral foundation, I must question whether cloud seeding as a form of geoengineering and weather modification is a “Tower of Babel” type behavior. Is this practice a form of secular humanism where man attempts to use technologies God has blessed him with to usurp the role of God Himself? The content available from the 1967 State Department report questions the use of cloud seeding / weather modification applied even at a time of military conflict or undeclared war.
Again, my objective with geoengineering legislation this year and last is simple. We the people have not consented to becoming test subjects as a part of geoengineering efforts. These efforts are documented in House Energy and Water appropriations from 2024. See page 119 of that document and $39m assigned. These geoengineering efforts were marketed by the United State Department of Energy (DOE) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). My use of the broader term of geoengineering is to capture cloud seeding, chem trailing and other aerosolization of chemicals, SAI, SRM, MCB, and other efforts like carbon capture.
Tennessee has led the way to stopping this in America. Other States are now enacting legislation similar to what we passed last year. TDEC has been an innovator and great partner in this effort. We have new national leadership who seem to be focused on our general health. Let us Tennesseans leverage this opportunity.
I need your help. If this matter is important to you. If clean air, water, soil, and food supplies for your family matters then get engaged. Call and write to all your elected officials. Reach out to City Councils, County Commissions, State Rep and Senators, and U.S. Congressional delegation. Let them know it is a responsible expectation to stop weather modification and all forms of geoengineering which may put our children and our grandparents at risk.
Call Governor Lee’s Office and demand that he exercises his current authority under TCA 58-2-116 to study and explore these matters fully. Ask that he and his team work with our District Attorneys and Tennessee Attorney General to further investigate those matters which warrant such. Offering this instruction form an innocent until proven guilty mindset asking them to do the work to make certain this generation of Tennesseans passes on clean air, water, and soil to the next. Our farmers and ranchers, our children and our grandparents depend upon us to act. Get engaged.
