WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency released a new website Thursday that debunks conspiracy theories about airplane contrails — conspiracies that are popular with a contingent of President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters, and at least one member of his cabinet.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime believer in the conspiracy that airplanes are spewing chemicals (instead of condensation) into the sky, seemed to think that the agency was planning to validate it.
“Im so proud of my friend Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump for their commitment to finally shatter the Deep State Omerta regarding the diabolical mass poisoning of our people, our communities, our waterways and farms, and our purple mountains, majesty,” Kennedy wrote on X in response to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s announcement that the agency would be releasing “everything we know about contrails and geoengineering.”
The EPA’s new website says the opposite of what Kennedy suggests. It defines chemtrails as “a term some people use to inaccurately claim that contrails resulting from routine air traffic are actually an intentional release of dangerous chemicals or biological agents at high altitudes for a variety of nefarious purposes.”
“We need to provide as much transparency as we possibly can, to be able to get information out there so people can get real facts and information.”
— Oklahoma Senator James Lankford
It’s not clear what inspired the EPA to release this website today, though the administration has spent the week dealing with conspiracy theories on multiple fronts. After devastating floods in Kerr County, Texas, killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth weekend, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene pledged to introduce legislation to ban so-called weather modification and geoengineering, alluding to the link frequently made between conspiracy theories about contrails and weather control.
“I want clean air, clean skies, clean rain water, clean ground water, and sunshine just like God created it!! No person, company, entity, or government should ever be allowed to modify our weather by any means possible!!” she wrote on X.
The EPA website makes an effort to debunk Greene’s theories as well and explains the role the government takes in regulating geoengineering.
“EPA is aware that some members of the public are concerned about unusual contrails they see in the sky or reports about geoengineering and dangerous chemicals being sprayed from jet aircraft at high altitudes,” the new website reads.
Asked about the EPA publicly addressing concerns about contrails, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin seemed frustrated to be talking about conspiracy theories at all.
“Everybody has their own opinion on how they wanna address it,” Mullin said. “I just don’t, because I deal in facts, and if a conspiracy turns into facts, then that’s fine, I’ll deal with it at that time. But until then, I’m not chasing it. We’ve got other things we’ve got to deal with.”
His counterpart, Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, approved of the EPA’s efforts and said it was important to try to address the false beliefs.
“We need to provide as much transparency as we possibly can, to be able to get information out there so people can get real facts and information,” he said. “Because when there’s a void of that, now you’re trying to prove a negative, when there’s nothing. No, government’s not controlling the weather. How do you prove that you’re not doing that when you’re not doing that?”
Republished in partnership with the local nonprofit Oklahoma Watch, and NOTUS, a publication of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute, under a Creative Commons license. Free Press publishes this report as a collaborative effort to provide the best coverage of state issues that affect our readers.
Anna Kramer is a NOTUS reporter covering the federal government for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at annakramer@notus.org
Emily Kennard is a NOTUS reporter covering the federal government for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at emilykennard@notus.org.
