Feds Could End Wyoming's Controversial Cloud Seeding Program for Good

A new federal effort could end Wyoming’s cloud seeding program.  

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, announced Saturday her intention to introduce a bill criminalizing cloud seeding and other “dangerous” weather modification techniques. 

Cloud seeding involves releasing the chemical silver iodide into clouds. The compound causes ice crystals to form from liquid water within the clouds, in turn leading to rain or snow. 

The Wyoming Water Development Office began winter cloud seeding programs in 2014 after studying it for several years. The office’s first project was a ground-based effort in the Wind River Range. The office began aerial operations in the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre ranges in 2018. 

One of the leading voices opposing cloud seeding in Wyoming is Freedom Caucus Chair State Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, who told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that Greene’s proposal is “common sense.” 

“We shouldn’t inject toxins into the atmosphere in pursuit of the climate cult’s desire to change the weather,” she said.

Silver iodide is toxic enough to be regulated by the Clean Water Act. However, the effects of the chemical haven’t been scientifically proven, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 

Some studies show the amount of silver iodide to be harmless while others claim there could be effects on marine life from accumulation over time. 

‘Knee-Jerk Reaction’

State Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, said she believes Greene’s proposal to be a “knee-jerk reaction” to fears over chemtrails. 

“I think that proposal is short-sighted and a knee-jerk reaction in order to get attention. It isn't based on science,” Nethercott told Cowboy State Daily. “Humans have been diverting water for thousands of years from the Roman aqueducts to your local irrigation system.” 

Cloud seeding also prevents hail in Cheyenne and other places in southeastern Wyoming, Nethercott said. 

Some ranchers in Pinedale have reported benefits from cloud seeding, Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna said. 

Efforts to stop cloud seeding are happening at multiple levels of government, he said. 

An effort to eliminate Wyoming’s cloud-seeding program failed in the 2023 legislative session.

The Wyoming Legislature then voted earlier this year to remove almost all funding for the state’s cloud seeding effort. 

State Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, led the effort to cut the program’s funding. He argued there’s a lack of evidence that it works and that it could harm the environment. 

Schmid pointed to Whiskey Mountain bighorn sheep herd, which has lost an estimated 1,500 members of its once 2,000-member herd. 

“This herd has for years been suffering from alarmingly low birth rates and repeated pneumonia outbreaks,” Schmid wrote in a Cowboy State Daily op-ed. “While habitat loss may play a role, we cannot ignore the fact that these sheep live in one of the most heavily cloud-seeded regions in the state.

“Could the accumulation of silver iodide in the soil and water — known to harm both wildlife and immune systems — be a contributing factor?” 

Some of Wyoming’s glaciers, particularly in the Wind River Range, also are melting faster than expected, he wrote, adding it could be because of the silver iodide.

State Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, said during debate of Wyoming’s could-seeding bill this past session that the state needs to know more about the effects of silver iodide, but added he didn’t support the funding cut. 

“But you don’t pause it, unless you have to, because you have data to prove it, and we don’t have that,” Nicholas said during that debate.

Matthew Christian can be reached at [email protected].