EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday that public concern over geoengineering and weather modification is valid, calling for transparency and rejecting efforts to dismiss citizens as “tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists.”
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Lee Zeldin defended Americans questioning government and private research into climate intervention technologies, emphasizing that skepticism is “genuine and real.” He cautioned that labeling concerned citizens as conspiracy theorists only fuels distrust and misinformation.
“If the U.S. government takes the position that we aren’t going to communicate with any of these people because we are just going to label them all as tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists, that ends up putting everyone in a worse position,” Zeldin said. “There’s less trust of government, there’s more of a vacuum of information. More people start believing in inaccurate information.”
The EPA recently unveiled a public database compiling ongoing studies and projects related to contrails and geoengineering, which Zeldin said reflects his policy of “total transparency.” The database, accessible on the EPA’s website, covers research into topics such as stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, and atmospheric gas removal.
“My policy on this topic is that everything that I know as EPA Administrator, the public should know,” Zeldin said. “Geoengineering, weather modification, stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening—the list goes on where people have questions. And my position is that they deserve answers.”
Zeldin warned, however, that misinformation online has clouded the conversation, with some users misrepresenting ordinary airplane condensation trails as evidence of secret government spraying programs. “They will put out a picture of a trail coming off the back of an airplane and say, ‘look, the government’s engaging in stratospheric aerosol injection.’ Anybody who knows the topic understands that’s just not an accurate statement,” he said.
The EPA chief confirmed that the agency is currently tracking one company conducting stratospheric aerosol experiments—Make Sunsets—which he described as “putting sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere at an extraordinarily low amount of volume.” Under federal law, such projects are only required to notify the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Zeldin called the company’s activity “crazy” but said its existence highlights the need for national discussion before any group attempts to expand such operations. “What happens if an entity chooses that they want to massively ramp up that effort?” he asked. “I’m not going to dismiss millions of Americans’ concerns. I want to help get them answers, and I just want to be honest in explaining what I find out.”
Zeldin’s remarks mark one of the clearest acknowledgments by a senior federal official that public concerns about large-scale atmospheric interventions deserve open dialogue rather than ridicule—a shift toward transparency in an area long shrouded in secrecy and speculation.
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