No, New Hampshire didn't ban 'chemtrails.' No votes taken on House emissions bill | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: New Hampshire banned ‘chemtrails’ in January 2024

A Jan. 22 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows contrails crisscrossing the sky beneath the headline of what appears to be a news story.

“New Hampshire Becomes Second U.S. State To Ban Chemtrails,” reads the headline of the article published by The People’s Voice.

The post received more than 1,400 likes in three days.

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Our rating: False

There is no ban. A New Hampshire House of Representatives bill that would prohibit some forms of emissions linked to the baseless “chemtrails” conspiracy theory has not been voted on or signed into law. The claim is based on an article published by a website that regularly publishes fabricated stories.

No votes on emissions bill, not signed into law

The Instagram post refers to a bill introduced Jan. 3 by two Republicans in the New Hampshire House. House Bill 1700 would prohibit the intentional release of several types of emissions, including some linked to a debunked conspiracy theory. Penalties would include a fine of up to $500,000, at least two years in prison, or both.

But at the time of the post, no ban was in place. Lawmakers had not voted on the legislation, and Gov. Chris Sununu had not signed it, according to the Fast Democracy bill tracker. As of Jan. 25, it was still in the process of being amended, one of the bill’s two sponsors told USA TODAY.

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“It will be inaccurate and outdated if you report on the current version of House Bill 1700,” Rep. Kelley Potenza said in an email.

The bill as of Jan. 25 targets anyone who "engages in a hazardous atmospheric activity" or "uses an unmarked or unidentified aircraft or other vehicle or facility to carry out (stratospheric aerosol injection) geoengineering, weather modification, cloud-seeding, or other polluting atmospheric activity."

The bill does not include the specific term “chemtrails." But Justin Mankin, the director of the Climate Modeling and Impacts Group at Dartmouth College, said the intent of the legislation is “patently obvious.”

“It is intended to legitimize – through legislative action – a fringe conspiratorial belief with no scientific basis, that also happens to conveniently align with wider conservative skepticism about human-caused climate change from fossil fuel combustion and fears about government action to mitigate such climate change,” Mankin said in an email to USA TODAY.

The "chemtrains" conspiracy theory claims contrails – the white streaks of condensed water vapor in the sky that trail the path of an airborne aircraft or rocket – actually are chemical or biological agents released as part of a covert operation. Experts say it lacks any credibility. Claims purporting to prove “chemtrails” are real have been repeatedly debunked by USA TODAY and other fact-checkers.

“This bill seems to be the logical extension of the illogically held belief that there is some kind of secret, large-scale atmospheric modification program,” Mankin said.

“There is no evidence that such a program exists; there is no evidence that ‘chemtrails’ exist and the New Hampshire House Republican sponsors of the bill present no evidence and no expertise to substantiate any of the bill’s contents," he added.

Additionally, New Hampshire could not become the second state with a ban on "chemtrails" because no state has enacted one first. A group petitioned Texas lawmakers in 2023 to consider a similar measure, but there is no credible evidence that the state has a ban or that such a measure was considered.

The People’s Voice, formerly known as NewsPunch, is a prolific producer of misinformation. USA TODAY has debunked numerous claims from the site, including that the World Economic Forum called for the consumption of human waste and that the World Health Organization declared mass vaccination is required to fight climate change.

“Chemtrails” have been a frequent subject of misinformation, and among the false claims debunked by USA TODAY are assertions that vaccines can be spread in them and that they, along with HAARP, were being used to manipulate the weather.

USA TODAY reached out to The People’s Voice but did not immediately receive a response. The Instagram user who shared the post could not be reached.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Post falsely claims New Hampshire banned 'chemtrails' | Fact check