Bill > HR7452

This bill, titled the "Air Quality Act," would prohibit weather modification activities within the United States, defining weather modification broadly to include any release of substances or use of apparatus into the atmosphere that changes its composition or behavior, or affects temperature, weather, climate, or sunlight intensity, explicitly including practices like geoengineering, cloud seeding, and stratospheric aerosol injection. The bill outlines criminal penalties of up to $100,000 fine and 5 years imprisonment for violations, and allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator, to impose civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, with each instance of release or dispersal considered a separate violation, and holding officers and employees of violating entities liable. To enforce this prohibition, the bill mandates the FAA to establish a system for air carriers to report aircraft equipped for weather modification, and the EPA to create public reporting systems for suspected violations, with the EPA investigating these reports and referring confirmed violations to the Attorney General for prosecution, while also nullifying any existing federal statutes, regulations, or executive orders that authorize or require weather modification, and prohibiting federal departments, agencies, or recipients of federal funds from conducting or authorizing such research or experimentation.