A Republican lawmaker who dismisses climate change as “nonsense” introduced legislation this week to create a federal report on the downsides of planet-cooling technologies.
The “Atmospheric Study Act” from Arizona Rep. Eli Crane would require the Department of Energy to work with relevant agencies “to identify any negative effects of … geoengineering projects on the health of humans and the environment.” The study would encompass any planet-cooling effort that the government funded or participated in.
The bill, introduced Monday, has zero co-sponsors, according to the Congressional Record.
Solar geoengineering technologies seek to limit global warming by reflecting a small amount of sunlight back into space. The two most studied approaches are stratospheric aerosol injection, in which reflective particles are released into the upper atmosphere, and marine cloud brightening, which seeks to increase the density of clouds at sea.
