 - A state legislative committee failed to pass a bill draft last week that would have placed a 10-year moratorium on all cloud seeding activities in the state.){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – A state legislative committee failed to pass a bill draft last week that would have placed a 10-year moratorium on all cloud seeding activities in the state.
During the moratorium, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality would have been tasked with completing a study of cloud seeding impacts compared to baseline conditions, according to the initial bill proposal – but University of Wyoming Atmospheric Science Department Head Jeff French said that plan wouldn’t be “scientifically sound.”
“Ten years of measurements in which no cloud seeding takes place in Wyoming is not going to provide the useful measurements to assess the effectiveness of cloud seeding in the state,” French explained during the Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Committee meeting last week. “If we really want to get to the answer of what can be the net benefits of cloud seeding, (we need) focused scientific studies and making the connection – the physical connection – between, ‘I am putting silver iodide into this cloud and I am physically observing how this cloud evolves and what falls out of the cloud.’
“The only way I could see us actually being able to measure the effectiveness of cloud seeding is by doing a focused study that includes cloud seeding.”
No funding, no study
Later, the committee voted to strike the study requirements from the bill draft in order to eliminate the need for an appropriation to fund the work.
As a result, Wyoming Sen. Taft Love, R-Cheyenne, noted that the bill had effectively been reduced to a straightforward moratorium on cloud seeding – instead of a “pause” intended to give the state time to “go find information (to) help us make better decisions,” as the original proposal outlined.
“At this point, we’ve taken out any funding opportunity, (and) we’ve taken out any study opportunity to educate ourselves,” Love said. “We’ve stripped it down to just a moratorium on cloud seeding. … I’m not sure this bill any longer represents the intent it originally had.”
The bill failed 5-5, with Wyoming Reps. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, and John Winter, R-Thermopolis (whose district includes a portion of Fremont County), voting in favor of the proposal.
Atmospheric geoengineering
The committee also voted to remove cloud seeding from two legislative proposals that were approved last week, prohibiting unauthorized atmospheric geoengineering in the state.
The first proposal they considered was a draft joint resolution asking Congress to pass federal legislation prohibiting the release of chemicals into the airspace for weather modification, solar radiation management, or environmental engineering without Wyoming’s permission.
During public comment on the proposal, Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities Director Brad Brooks, who is also a member of the Colorado River Working Group, asked that cloud seeding be excluded from the resolution due to its “importance” in Wyoming.
“We have some really serious issues facing us on the Colorado River system,” Brooks explained. “The amount of water that we possibly could lose, if there’s a curtailment for our state, is going to affect our whole state. (So) I would ask that we would consider to allow cloud seeding to continue for the next several years, because right now, probably more than any, is a critical time for us on the Colorado River in trying to get as much moisture in that system as we can with the negotiations that we’re dealing with.”
Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts Executive Director Holly Kennedy echoed Brooks’ request later, emphasizing that “it has been well-proven that the methods that they use for cloud seeding – the silver iodide and the propane – are very safe” and “don’t cause problems to the environment.”
“It’s been very well studied (and) documented,” Kennedy said, adding, “When our surrounding states are also utilizing this technology to augment snow packs, I think it’s important for us to be too. …
“To willingly give up the ability to help augment those snow packs, I think, would be very detrimental.”
Ottman questioned the assertion that cloud seeding was effective at increasing precipitation, however, asking, “If that is so … why are we in drought, then? Why are we having problems with snowpack?”
In response, Kennedy explained that cloud seeding “doesn’t create snow” – rather, it helps ice crystals form within clouds that are already “ready to snow” so that “when we do have a snow event, we can get a little bit more snow out of those clouds.”
“It’s not a cure-all,” she said. “It’s not something that you can push the button and make it snow. It just helps augment that process.”
State sovereignty
The committee approved an amendment to the draft resolution removing references to cloud seeding and specifying that the proposal doesn’t apply to that practice.
“Some of us still support the idea of cloud seeding and don’t want it banned outright,” Wyoming Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, said. “There’s times when it might be useful for people in Wyoming.”
If the state bans cloud seeding in the future, Ottman pointed out, the practice would then fall under the criteria listed in the resolution, which asks Congress to “prohibit unauthorized atmospheric geoengineering and weather modification in the state.”
“If it’s authorized, it’s authorized; if it isn’t, then it isn’t,” she said. “We’re just putting forth our state sovereignty. … This is just saying that if it’s not authorized here, (then) we prefer that the federal government doesn’t overextend their reach into our state.”
The amended bill draft was approved 10-2, with Ottman and Winter both voting yes.
DEQ
Ottman and Winter also voted in favor of a bill draft that would prohibit the intentional injection, release, or dispersal of atmospheric contaminants in Wyoming for the purpose of altering climate, weather, or solar radiation.
The proposal authorizes the Wyoming DEQ to issue cease-and-desist orders if it discovers any prohibited activity taking place, and to notify the entities involved that those activities are illegal in Wyoming.
DEQ Director Todd Parfitt said his agency would likely need to hire two additional full-time employees to implement the legislation by investigating complaints, identifying sources of reported emissions, and following up with enforcement actions and potential litigation.
“We don’t have the resources or the staffing to be able to take on the new work,” he explained. “That’s why we would need the (additional employees) – otherwise something else has to fall off the plate.”
The committee passed an amendment to the bill draft last week appropriating $500,000 to the DEQ to cover the two full-time hires.
Ottman wondered whether the extra expense would be necessary, though, since the DEQ is already tasked with ensuring that “ambient air quality in Wyoming is maintained in accordance with the national ambient air quality standards.”
“(How) is it that this would be so different from what you’re already doing?” she asked. “(With) the specific task that you have currently … how are you addressing these things?”
Parfitt explained that the bill draft would expand DEQ’s responsibilities beyond its existing mandates – especially since the committee had just approved an amendment specifying that the following duties were also part of the proposal:
- study whether the atmospheric contaminants listed in this act pose a threat to human and environmental health or safety
- monitor all aircraft, drones, balloons or rockets that enter the state’s airspace to determine whether atmospheric contaminants are being dispersed
- monitor all space-based platforms above the state and ground-based facilities within the state to determine whether atmospheric contaminants are being dispersed
- petition a court of competent jurisdiction to issue a cease and desist order upon discovery of any prohibited activity under this section
“Those four new things there we currently don’t do, which we would have to do moving forward,” Parfitt said.
The committee passed several other amendments to the bill draft last week, including one exempting cloud seeding from the proposed legislation.
The approved bill draft and the draft resolution will now go to the Wyoming Legislature for further consideration during the 2026 legislative session.