A bill has been proposed in the Louisiana state congress to ban “chemtrails” over baseless fears that they influence the weather.
Representative Kimberly Landry Coates said she is concerned about whether the white streaks left behind by aircraft create clouds and affect weather patterns. Coates and others believe the white streaks are made of nanochemicals such as Barium.
Coates further claimed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sends chemicals into clouds to reflect sunlight and cool the Earth’s surface; NOAA says it does not do this and does not plan to. Coates has referred to at least eight other unnamed agencies as complicit in chemical dumping in the air.
What Really Are Contrails?
What Coates and others refer to as “chemtrails” are really made of condensed exhaust that enters subzero temperatures in the upper atmosphere and freeze. These trails, officially known as contrails, are made mostly of water vapor with other trace gases that are absorbed into the atmosphere or otherwise dispelled before reaching the ground or influencing weather.
CNN Climate reports that it takes specific conditions for contrails to form; cold temperature alone won’t cause them. Rather, a specific balance most often found on cool, clear days eventually leads to the formation of contrails.
These same conditions also determine how long contrails linger. While some contrails disappear quickly, some can linger for close to half an hour. As a general rule, the more humid the outside air is, the more likely contrails are not only to form but also to linger for long periods, per the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Not the First Bill This Year
Louisiana is not the first state to challenge “chemtrails” head-on this year. Florida’s state legislature has passed a bill that, if signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, would establish a hotline for people to report weather manipulation through chemicals such as contrails. Anyone convicted of modifying weather with such chemicals would become a felon facing five years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
DeSantis has already said he will sign the bill into law.
Robert F Kennedy, Jr, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, has also called out chemtrails and called for more work to be done looking into them.
The History of the Chemtrail Conspiracy
Discourse on chemtrails goes back to at least the mid-1990s and has been on the rise since. Claims of geoengineering often increase as severe weather increases, and with more severe events happening in recent years, concern about issues like chemtrails is on the rise.
Various bills have been introduced over the years to try limiting the impact of chemtrails. A bill limiting geoengineering was introduced in Rhode Island in 2014 but never passed. Tennessee approved such a bill in 2024.
