Sen. Ron Winterton, a Roosevelt Republican representing Park City, Heber and Kamas, says Senate Bill 23 is designed to address “chemtrails.”
But chemtrails — defined as the intentional release of chemicals from airplanes to control either people or the weather — don’t exist.
Conspiracy theorists sometimes claim, without evidence, that the white cloud-like contrails left by aircraft are chemicals.
“If you want to be conspiracist and say it's going on — and those that say it's not — we're going to put something on the books to address it, in case it is happening,” Winterton told KPCW in a Feb. 2 interview. “I believe it is happening, and probably, I don't know, over the last year since we didn't get this across the finish line, I probably had 5,000 emails and texts and pictures of this activity going on.”
Scientists agree that contrails are actually water from engines condensing in the cold, high altitude air, similar to how car exhaust is more visible in the winter.
Details of Senate Bill 23
If passed, SB23 would make “solar geoengineering” a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
Solar geoengineering generally refers to the practice of releasing reflective particles or making clouds shinier to reflect sunlight away or limit how much of it reaches the Earth.
It is not a widespread practice.
As of Feb. 3, 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency says it is only aware of two efforts at solar geoengineering in the United States.
One was a now-cancelled University of Washington-led experiment in California to blow salt water out of a device resembling a ski resort’s snow gun.
Politico reported that scientists hoped to test saltwater sprays on a larger scale, but the Alameda, California, city government shut them down. Consultants the city hired later said the experiment didn’t pose a health risk.
The other, as reported by The Washington Post, are unapproved and unregulated efforts by a small California startup Make Sunsets to release sulfur dioxide from balloons. The EPA says it is investigating and believes the total amount of material released is insignificant compared to volcanic eruptions, for example.
A nationwide trend
Nevertheless, numerous legislatures around the country are pushing bills to ban solar geoengineering. Some bills also take aim at cloud seeding, another practice that is frequent fodder for conspiracy theories.
According to a pro-solar geoengineering group, SM360, 36 states and the federal government have pending legislation, including Utah. Only Florida, Louisiana and Texas have passed bans.
Winterton said SB23 would help Utah investigate residents’ claims. It requires the Utah Department of Transportation to create a way for people to report solar geoengineering.
But during interim session discussions, Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, was worried about wasting taxpayer money chasing down false reports.
“To me, there's a difference between somebody intentionally running a balloon up — having it blow up and do something — or having a ship off the ocean do something, as opposed to people who are using department resources to try to identify contrails and have the department try to determine every time if those are credible reports or not,” he said during an October interim session meeting. “I see something here that looks like it's really expensive, and [UDOT] is going to be in a tough spot.”
Last year, Winterton’s chemtrail legislation didn’t pass into law. He told KPCW colleagues at the state capitol were worried it would prevent Utah from cloud seeding to create more precipitation.
He said this year’s bill explicitly carves out cloud seeding.
