Gov. DeSantis signs bill to prohibit activities ‘intended to affect’ weather, temperature, sunlight intensity

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Friday that prohibits geoengineering and certain weather modification activities, making it a third-degree felony.

Senate Bill 56 repeals the state’s ability to issue permits for geoengineering and weather modification. It also prohibits the release of chemicals or apparatuses into the state’s atmosphere that are “intended to affect the weather, temperature or the intensity of sunlight.”

“Florida is not a testing ground for geoengineering. We already do not permit this activity, and I will be signing SB 56 to prohibit the practice in our skies. The Free State of Florida means freedom from governments or private actors unilaterally applying chemicals or geoengineering to people or public spaces,” DeSantis said in May.

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The bill also directs the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to establish a dedicated e-mail address and online form to allow people to report suspected geoengineering and weather modification activities.

The bill also removed the DEP’s authority to conduct studies, research, experimentation, and evaluations in the field of weather modification.

Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani pushed back against the bill back in May when the Legislature approved it.

“This bill is feeding into conspiracy theories, and I think it’s important that we do not legislate under that type of pressure but that we legislate on science, we legislate on fact, we legislate not on fear but on information,” Eskamani told Florida Politics. “The fact that this bill does not require the consultation of a meteorologist, the consultation of scientists to say (whether this) is suspicious activity is absolutely going to create an environment where things will be reported nonstop, bogging down the department and now potentially bogging down law enforcement who have a lot of more important work to do.”

Violators of this bill could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000, except aircraft operators and controllers, who are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and five years’ imprisonment.

The bill goes into effect on July 1.