PHOENIX — That beautiful blue sky etched with the white lines of jet aircraft contrails catches the eye.
The water vapor trails created by the heat from both propeller and jet aircraft flying at frigid high altitudes has been a constant since vast fleets of bombers flew over Europe in World War II.
But for decades and despite the theory being widely debunked, some people remain convinced the vapor trails are actually an insidious government-led effort to spray dangerous chemicals or biological agents into the atmosphere.
Enter the Arizona Legislature.
A series of bills introduced this session aim to ban any effort to spray or inject any chemical into the atmosphere as part of an effort to block solar radiation.
With the Earth heating up from the accumulation of carbon dioxide caused by the burning of fossil fuels, extensive research is underway to study the risks, benefits and potential methods of solar radiation management to lower worldwide temperatures.
And those who think governments are spraying chemicals into the air believe so-called SRM is the latest evidence of what they say has been going on for decades: chemtrails raining chemicals down on the earth.
Sen. John Kavanagh, sponsor of one of the bills, SB1098, acknowledged his effort is driven by people who believe in chemtrails.
"I have a lot of constituents that are concerned. They mostly mentioned chemtrails,'' said the Fountain Hills Republican.
"I haven't seen any evidence either way on chemtrails,'' he said. "But I have enough constituents who are concerned that I'd like to put their minds to rest that it's illegal to dump chemicals into the atmosphere unless it's been approved, unless it's for rain-making approved by the environmental people in Arizona.''
His measure would make it illegal to inject, release or dispense by any means "any chemical, chemical compound, substance or apparatus within the borders of this state with the express purpose of affecting temperature, climate, weather or the intensity of sunlight.'' He plans an amendment to specifically allow cloud seeding to boost rainfall.
Sen. John Kavanagh
He's not the only one looking at the issue.
On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources will consider a similar plan by Rep. David Farnsworth.
Sen. David Farnsworth
The Mesa Republican wants to forbid release of materials into the atmosphere, though his SB1278 deals only with solar radiation management. It does, however, have something not in the Kavanagh bill: a provision requiring the attorney general to investigate "all credible complaints'' that the law is being violated.
It also bans state universities or any other government body from providing grants for the development of solar radiation management.
The panel is also set to hear another Farnsworth proposal. His SB1279 would set up a procedure for state licensing of weather modification activities as well as a review and approval of any chemicals, compounds or substances. It would require public hearings, after the Pinal County Water Augmentation Authority drew criticism last year for doing cloud-seeding without directly notifying the public.
All this comes amid renewed concerns about "chemtrails.''
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rolled out a new webpage last year laying out facts about aircraft contrails and "geoengineering." The agency noted that some people believe contrails created by routine air traffic are actually "chemtrails'' intended for "a variety of nefarious purposes, including population control, mind control, or attempts to geoengineer Earth or modify the weather.''
EPA Director Lee Zeldin acknowledged concerns about the research into solar radiation management and other geoengineering last year while backing the agency's position debunking any evidence of chemtrails.
"Americans have legitimate questions about contrails and geoengineering, and they deserve straight answers,'' said Zeldin. "We're publishing everything EPA knows about these topics on these websites.''
That hasn't stopped the conspiracy theories.
The Arizona House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy and Water heard a bill last week identical to Farnsworth's SB1278 banning SRM.
Rep. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, who chairs the panel, sought to limit testimony, saying chemtrails weren't part of HB2042, sponsored by Rep. Lisa Fink, R-Glendale.
"I just want to remind everybody, we're talking about solar radiation management,'' Griffin told those gathered for the hearing. "And we're not going to take testimony on anything else other than this, this procedure.''
That did not stop a parade of chemtrail believers from coming to the podium to call for bans on their creation.
The first person to testify kept on topic, addressing solar radiation management and calling it "one of most controversial forms of geoengineering.''
From then on, it was pretty much chemtrails all the time.
"As a concerned mom, wife and citizen of Arizona, I will say as a citizen, this is going on. It absolutely is," Kimberly Scoggin told the committee.
"Calling it a chemtrail is not correct. It is a stratospheric radiation management with toxic chemicals of aluminum, barium, strontium, raining down,'' she added.
"If you denied this is going on, that is on you. I'm sorry. It seems to split across party lines,'' Scoggin continued. "It's raining down on Democrats. It's raining down on all our kids, our plants, the wildlife, the water. It is raining down. I urge you to go outside. Please stop ignoring this.''
Joel Colley, who introduced himself as a practicing physician, said large commercial-sized jets outfitted with special tanks are spraying strontium, aluminum, barium and mercury at high altitudes across the world.
"These things that you see are not from jet exhaust,'' he said. "Jet exhaust don't spread out and filter out the sun, radiation, energy gets to the surface of the earth. That's how that's the beginning of the water cycle. I was appalled.''
After multiple chemtrail adherents testified and urged the panel to back Fink's bill, Democrats on the committee all voted "no", with some expressing vague support for looking more closely at solar radiation management itself, if not endorsing the chemtrail adherents.
"I appreciate the sponsor, and I also thank everyone for sitting through a very long day and sharing your passion informed viewpoints,'' said Rep. Sarah Liguori, D-Phoenix.
"There's so much in the testimony today that I agree with and wish we could pull out and develop more together on,'' she said. "But in regards to putting out a prohibition and ban in the state right now I'm a 'no.' ''
Majority Republicans all voted to advance the bill to the full House for consideration, while mainly focusing on the bill's actual content, a ban on any solar radiation management.
"We don't really understand what the consequences are of trying to reflect the sun's radiation,'' said Rep. James Taylor, R-Litchfield Park.
"We speculated about it, get testimony about what might happen if you stopped it all of a sudden, and that type of thing,'' he said. "But we don't really know. So before we were to endorse this, we certainly want to have a better idea of what we're dealing with and what the consequence of it is.''
Similar bills have failed to make it out of the Legislature in recent years.
