President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin launched two new resources to deliver “total transparency” for Americans curious about “geoengineering and contrails,” whom he said had been unfairly “vilified” for years for questions asked in “good faith.”
Taking to X on Thursday Zeldin promised that the days of being stonewalled on this particular issue were over.
The message was also shared by the official EPA account.
An hour later Zeldin shared a video and a link to a new page on the EPA website that he said “delves into the current state of science and research surrounding geoengineering.” The page will also detail work done by the agency to “identify and track private actors potentially engaged in such activities.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies, contrails are produced by a combination of water vapor in aircraft engine exhaust ejected at low ambient temperatures. Cloud seeding, however, is also a real practice that tries to implement rainfall in dry areas.
The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory posits that the white condensation trails left by airplanes are toxic chemical or biological sprays spread by nefarious actors. Followers of the idea speculate on a range of reasons, including population manipulation and weather control.
Zeldin’s announcement drew immediate backlash from Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who is co-chair of Caucus On Climate and called the proposal to investigate “genuinely insane.”
Still, Zeldin’s championing of the issue, however, comes as the idea of chemtrail and geoengineering projects being enacted upon the unsuspecting U.S. population gains traction in some Republican-led state legislatures.
In May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signaled support for a ban on “weather modification activities” – including the airborne release of particles to reflect sunlight. Tennessee enacted a similar law last year, as did states like Kentucky, Arizona, and Iowa.
This article has been updated.
