Tennessee Looks To Ban Geoengineering And Weather Modification

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By Tennessee Stands / Tri-Cities Coalition –

Representative Monty Fritts (R-D32-Kingston) and Senator Steve Southerland (R-D9-Morristown) have introduced legislation to prohibit the federal government from engaging in geoengineering experimentation.

Specifically, the legislation would prohibit activities involving the intentional release or dispersing of chemicals or chemical substances into the Tennessee atmosphere.

HB2063 is on the calendar to be heard in House Agriculture Tuesday, March 5th and SB2691 will be heard in Senate Agriculture Wednesday, March 6th. The language is not yet posted but we obtained a copy here. 

Similar legislation has been entered across the country in six other states. Neighboring state Kentucky introduced HB506, and SB217, Rhode Island introduced The Clean Air Preservation Act, New Hampshire entered The Clean Atmosphere Preservation Act ,Illinois entered a Weather Modification Act, South Dakota entered legislation and Connecticut entered SB302.

The sense of urgency to take legislative action to prohibit geoengineering such as SRM (solar radiation modification), SAI (stratospheric aerosol injection) and other weather modification activities is in response to federal SRM and SAI funding and a June 2023 White House report titled, Congressionally Mandated Research Plan and Initial Research Governance Framework Related to Solar Radiation Modification.  

The document states, “The Biden-Harris Administration strongly affirms that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world, particularly those countries and communities most vulnerable to its adverse effects. Immediate, sustained, and effective reductions of global greenhouse gas emissions are required to slow the pace of climate change and reduce the risk of crossing critical and potentially catastrophic thresholds in the global climate system. These reductions must occur while robust adaptation is accelerated and while capabilities in effective and responsible carbon dioxide removal, such as direct air capture and permanent sequestration, are pursued vigorously.”

“The Administration also recognizes that there is growing interest and investment in research on actions that, together with mitigation measures, could limit temperature increase and thereby help address the risks of climate change, including potential tipping points and overshoot scenarios. For example, academia, philanthropy, and the private sector have examined preliminary applications of climate intervention techniques, such as stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud brightening (techniques categorized as “solar radiation modification,” hereafter SRM), intended to rapidly limit temperature increase. Alongside the potential benefits of such actions, serious concerns have been raised about the potential outcomes of SRM. These unknowns, and the ever-evolving understanding of complex Earth systems, provide a compelling case for research to better understand both the potential benefits and risks.”

The document acknowledges that SRM, blocking the sun with aerosols and the implications of such practices are not well understood. That didn’t stop Bill Gates from suggesting we use it as mentioned in this Forbes article. Or the government from proposing such experimentation be carried out.  

This legislative session, Biden’s climate efforts have come up several times. Most recently, surrounding conservation easements and the push for land to go from private ownership to government ownership. 

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act which is where many feared conservation dollars were coming from, claims to address climate change. It reads, “With the stroke of his pen, the President redefined American leadership in confronting the existential threat of the climate crisis and set forth a new era of American innovation and ingenuity to lower consumer costs and drive the global clean energy economy forward. This guidebook provides an overview of the clean energy, climate mitigation and resilience, agriculture, and conservation-related investment programs in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, including who is eligible to apply for funding and for what activities.”

SRM and SAI geoengineering are presented as UN climate mitigation programs relative to Agenda 21,The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and net zero goals for 2050, which are in violation of TN SB 1147. 

Tennessee Congressman Fleischmann’s report mentions forms of geoengineering on page 119. It reads, “The recommendation provides not less than $39,000,000 to improve the understanding of key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiation processes.”

The Federal government isn’t the only place we are seeing the climate agenda promoted, it is now in our state on the tn.gov website here and here. 

Danielle Goodrich from Johnson City Freedom, a Tennessee group which looks to uphold God-given rights, is in support of banning geoengineering. She finds the federal response to the supposed “climate crisis” troubling. Goodrich stated, “The heavy-handed government approach to the supposed “climate crisis” is just like the heavy-handed approach in COVID. The government lifted a moratorium on experimenting on viruses, told us there would be a pandemic, a virus was released, we were blamed for breathing, and our rights were infringed upon. Now we have the government experimenting on weather, telling us we will have severe weather, as they block out the sun, blame us for breathing and look to infringe on our rights again. They do not have the consent of Tennesseans to experiment on us.”

Goodrich went on to say, “We need to start pushing back against these climate mitigation efforts like we did against the unconstitutionality of COVID, as the solutions are having devastating consequences.”

Goodrich commented on the Inflation Reduction Act actually being about the climate crisis and how it is having the opposite effect on the economy. Increasing inflation, not decreasing. 

Goodrich said,“The energy crisis caused by the climate policies have led to a shortage of fuel; oil, coal and gas. Fuel that provides over 80% of the world’s energy. A shortage of anything leads to higher prices. That is basic economics. Fuel shortages have led to higher fuel prices. And because the energy industry powers every other industry it has led to higher prices of everything. Inflation. All of Biden’s mitigation efforts are doing more harm than good, and blocking out the sun using chemicals is equally harmful. I am glad to see Tennessee is looking to address this. Thank you to Representative Fritts and Senator Southerland.”

Gary Humble, the Founder and CEO of Tennessee Stands, one of the largest Conservative grassroots organizations in the state, said once NH 1700, the New Hampshire legislation was introduced, his organization was getting a lot of calls asking if Tennessee would have similar legislation this session. 

One thing is for sure, this legislation seems to have a lot of grassroots support already.

Interestingly, “Weather modification” can already be found in TENN. CODE ANN. § 58-2-116 (2020) but it isn’t as a ban. It is as an authority of the Governor, weather modification in emergency powers.Therefore, the Governor has emergency authority to enact weather modification which currently is not defined. It has been recommended to repeal this language as a part of the law and to define each of the potential forms of aerosol releases as other state legislation has. 

The Kentucky legislation took a strong stance against the federal experimentation while flexing the tenth amendment. Their legislation reads, “Pursuant to the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and the inherent right for Kentucky citizens to engage in thoughtful deliberation and determine public policy by voting, the citizens of the Commonwealth do not consent to any unconstitutional actions or efforts made by the federal government or international bodies that intentionally release polluting emissions into the Commonwealth’s atmosphere, through geoengineering, cloud seeding, weather modification, or any other means; and..”

Karen Bracken from Tennessee Citizens for State Sovereignty (TCSS) agrees that there are state sovereignty implications of the federal experimentation. 

We reached out for a statement, “TN Citizens for State Sovereignty supports HB2063/SB2691.” Karen said she would like to see the bill amended to add a huge penalty for violators of this law to include financial penalty as well as jail time should the offender be found to have knowingly broken this law once the bill is passed. 

Bracken’s statement read, “Releasing, whether intentional or not, emissions that result in the pollution of Tennessee water, air, soil, foliage, wildlife, agriculture or damage to the health of the residents of Tennessee is an unconstitutional act and the public demands it be stopped immediately.  The federal government has absolutely no constitutional authority over the environment and they have no authority to perform any and all efforts to manipulate the weather; nor do they have the authority to hire 3rd parties to release pollutants in the state of Tennessee or any state. It is the duty of our state elected leaders to refuse to comply with any acts that disrupt the natural order of things in our state.  The state needs to exercise our 10th Amendment and nullify any laws, rules, regulations, Executive Orders, international agreements or treaties that violate our Constitution when the federal government steps outside its 18 enumerated powers as listed in Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution.  No, there is no clause in our Constitution that expands the authority of the federal government beyond those 18 enumerated powers and that includes the Supremacy Clause.  We also need to invoke The Anti-Commandeering Doctrine and refuse to provide any resources in order to implement any law, rules, regulations, Executive Orders, international agreement or treaties that pertain to the spraying of unsafe emissions of all and any kind in the state of Tennessee as ordered by the US federal government, the government of another country or any 3rd party agency, organization or foundation.”

Some of the other states have included an enforcement mechanism and penalties for violative activity, however TN HB2063 and SB2691 do not. 

Provisions for violative activities in Kentucky’s legislation states, “Class D felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for each day of violation, or by imprisonment for a term of not less than one (1) year and not more than five (5) years, or by both fine and imprisonment, for each separate violation..”

Tennessee’s legislation reads, “Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68, Chapter 201, Part 1, is amended by adding the following as a new section:The intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of 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 is prohibited.”

The legislation points to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) as responsible for monitoring air, soil, and water quality, and regulating industrial and agricultural emissions into the air, soil, and water within the State of Tennessee. The bill does not say how TDEC will monitor for violations or how violations will be addressed. 

The Director of Zerogeoengineering, Jolie Diane, who has helped get legislation entered across the country, found the language contained, “”while allowing all authorized activities permitted under state law;” problematic because TDEC may be collaborating with the federal government / international organizations such as the UN on modeling and dispersion methods which may involve the intentional release of pollution that is not called geoengineering. If TDEC is collaborating with the federal government, they may not be capable of enforcement.”

Several of the other states looked to the Sheriffs to be the enforcement arm of these laws.

Diane, however, was pleased to see Tennessee taking a step to address geoengineering, discussing how it intends to intervene in poorly-understood, dynamic and complex systems.

Human rights law is clearly relevant to the assessment of the risks posed by geoengineering and, in view of the range of rights potentially impacted and the scale of potential interference with those rights, supports a restrictive approach and potentially a moratorium. 

Diane thought another part missing, a piece that some of the other states did not leave out, was the involvement of ground-based and space-based infrastructure in the weather modification process. Diane said, “Cell towers are being utilized in an international context (UN WMO / UN ITU / China) for weather engineering and other purposes, contaminating Tennessee with RF/MW radiation. Inclusive of monitoring capabilities (surveillance) with built-in vulnerability for foreign entities to damage or destroy electrical grid and cellular communication system with ease, intentionally.” 

In addition to constant monitoring capabilities (surveillance), wireless networks are extremely vulnerable to hacking, allowing enemies both foreign and domestic to steal data and easily damage or destroy the electrical grid and cellular communication systems, intentionally. 

The Rhode Island legislation looked to address this and reads, “(a) Attempts to control the Earth’s weather through solar radiation modification (SRM), stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), or other forms of weather engineering involve the release of hazardous chemicals and/or xenobiotic (foreign-to-life) electromagnetic radiation pollution into the atmosphere, threatening the public health and environmental conditions on the surface.

(b) There are ever-increasing numbers of pollution-generating, microwave-irradiating instruments used in weather engineering systems, including, but not limited to, ground-based facilities interoperable with weather satellites. Such infrastructures and the electrical grid are susceptible to radiofrequency/microwave radiation (RF/MW) interference and cyber-attacks, potentially leading to accidents, fatalities, more frequent replacement of equipment, and costing the public billions of dollars.”

To thank, discuss the legislation please contact the bill sponsors:

Representative Monty Fritts rep.monty.fritts@capitol.tn.gov

Senator Steve Southerland sen.steve.southerland@capitol.tn.gov

To support next week in House AG 

To support next week in Senate AG