Overview

• On Sept. 16, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene chaired a hearing titled “Playing God with the Weather — a Disastrous Forecast,” probing cloud seeding, solar radiation management and federal transparency while citing past military programs.
• Greene used the session to promote her Clear Skies Act, introduced in July, which seeks a federal ban on geoengineering and weather modification.
• Democrats, led by Ranking Member Melanie Stansbury, criticized the proceeding as a diversion from the subcommittee’s efficiency mandate and said it elevated anti‑science rhetoric.
• Witnesses and scientific assessments referenced by the panel said there is no evidence of any large‑scale climate modification in use and described solar radiation approaches as mostly theoretical with limited real‑world testing.
• GAO and NOAA materials noted cloud seeding’s modest and hard‑to‑measure impacts—often between zero and 20 percent more precipitation—and reaffirmed that contrails are not “chemtrails,” while witnesses rejected claims that seeding caused recent flooding.