Marjorie Taylor Greene proposing weather modification ban after Texas flooding

ATLANTA - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced over the weekend that she plans to introduce federal legislation to ban weather modification and geoengineering practices—reviving long-running conspiracy theories about government manipulation of natural disasters.

What they're saying:

In a post on X, Greene said the bill would prohibit any individual, entity, or government from "injecting, releasing, or dispersing" substances into the atmosphere to alter weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity. She called the practice "dangerous and deadly" and said it should be classified as a felony offense.

The move comes just days after deadly floods swept across Texas, though Greene made no direct reference to the storm. Still, her comments drew widespread criticism for echoing debunked claims that catastrophic weather events are intentionally engineered. Greene has previously floated theories that hurricanes are targeted at Republican areas and that space lasers caused wildfires.

Her bill is modeled after Florida’s Senate Bill 56, recently signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which outlaws cloud seeding and similar weather modification practices, carrying fines of up to $100,000 and up to five years in prison.

Cloud seeding, an 80-year-old technology that involves dispersing particles like silver iodide into clouds to encourage rain or snow, is used in the U.S., mostly by private firms to boost precipitation in drought-prone areas.

The other side:

Meteorologists were quick to push back on Greene’s announcement. "Cloud seeding is for a tiny cloud—not a 4-trillion-gallon flood," wrote meteorologist Matthew Cappucci on X, calling Greene’s claims scientifically inaccurate.

Meteorologist Travis Herzog has also weighed in on the cloud-seeding debate.

"Cloud seeding cannot create a storm of this magnitude or size. In fact, cloud seeding cannot even create a single cloud. All it can do is take an existing cloud and enhance the rainfall by up to 20%. Most estimates have the rainfall enhancement in a much lower range. I am unaware of any active cloud seeding operations that occurred on Thursday night, but it is physically impossible for that to have created this weather system," Herzog wrote on social media.

Texas does conduct cloud seeding through regulated programs like the West Texas Weather Modification Association. Rainmaker, which is a weather modification startup in California, is being targeted by some for reportedly conducting a 20-minute cloud-seeding mission over a large portion of Texas, approximately 150 miles south of where the flooding occurred. According to the Dallas Express, Rainmaker's CEO is speaking later today about the scrutiny after the Texas floods.

Greene’s office has not released the full text of the bill or commented further on potential federal enforcement measures.

This is not the first time Greene has complained about weather modification. Greene claimed in 2024 that Hurricane Hele was formed through weather modification.

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What we know:

Greene is also offering Americans the chance to win a M249S Para, which is a semi-automatic rifle, in honor of the country's 250th birthday. The rifle was designed for airborne, armored infantry and close quarters combat operations, according to Greene. The Georgia representative also calls it one of her "absolute favorite" guns.

Individuals can enter to win the gun for as little as a $10 donation.

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