President Donald Trump‘s EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has responded to public inquiries about contrails and geoengineering by having his agency “compile a list of everything we know about contrails and geoengineering” and making the information available online.
The reports on the newly-created EPA websites debunk the “chemtrails theory” that chemicals are being sprayed into the sky by aircraft to control the weather. (Some believers in the debunked chemtrails theory purport that the alleged chemicals are also used for such things as mind control, population control, solar radiation modification, and small-scale chemical warfare.)
Zeldin said: “Instead of simply dismissing these questions and concerns as baseless conspiracies, we’re meeting them head on.”
He added, “We did the legwork, looked at the science, consulted agency experts and pulled in relevant outside information to put these online resources together. Everything we know about contrails to geoengineering will be in there.”
The Trump EPA is committed to total transparency. I tasked my team @EPA to compile everything we know about contrails and geoengineering to release to you now publicly. I want you to know EVERYTHING I know about these topics, and without ANY exception! https://t.co/izKBz0lFvr pic.twitter.com/FkOCgBm3K9
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) July 10, 2025
Billionaire Nicole Shanahan — former running mate of 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — said the release of Zeldin’s report offered “the right moment to share” again her own belief that contrails and geoengineering are “serious concerns.”
Prompted by Zeldin’s announcement, Shanahan released information she said was provided to her by a whistleblower and posted what she titled “The Dark MAHA Report on Geoengineering” with the subtitle “Who’s Behind It and How We Stop It.”
Shanahan described the whistleblower as “an individual who has held high-level security clearances and has spent over a decade consulting directly with major federal agencies. Their experience spans the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, NOAA, and the Intelligence Community.”
The EPA says it plans to release information on geoengineering. I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned from a whistleblower as well. pic.twitter.com/5bUj7K0rbx
— Nicole Shanahan (@NicoleShanahan) July 10, 2025
Shanahan also reported that “While the whistleblower did not disclose any classified information,” they did provide “federal grant data showing millions of taxpayer dollars flowing to universities” thanks to organizations including the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), which Shanahan says has received more than $230 million in direct federal awards.
(NOTE: Federal grants to universities for scientific study of weather are not secret, nor do they support the “chemtrails” theory — as Zeldin’s reports show. Shanahan’s own citing of a 1979 Commerce Department paper shows that the attempt to study weather manipulation is a longstanding scientific field which has had government support.)
Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M University, told the New York Times that the new EPA websites “appear to be a reasonable effort to give people the facts they need to recognize that chemtrails claims lack any scientific basis.”
Still, he said, “those already convinced of the conspiracy will likely be unmoved. Instead, they’ll probably just conclude that the EPA is in on the coverup.”
Many of Shanahan’s followers on X proved Dessler correct, complaining that “Lee Zeldin’s pathetic announcement that he will ‘inform’ the public about what he ‘finds’ regarding ‘geoengineering’ is an insult and a joke.”