EXCLUSIVE Marjorie Taylor Greene denies she's stoking weather conspiracies after Texas floods with plan to outlaw 'climate manipulation'
'Our air, our precipitation, our weather and our sunshine are something that we all share, and certain special groups or companies should not be controlling that,' she told the Daily Mail in a phone call Tuesday.
Just days before the Georgia congresswoman posted on X she had introduced a bill 'that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.'
Her post came just a day after catastrophic flash floods rushed through central Texas, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people as search and rescue efforts remain ongoing.
Greene told the Daily Mail her bill and its timing have nothing to do with the floods, though she claimed questions remain about weather modification practices in Texas before the tragedy.
'This isn't something that just I came up with based on the horrible, tragic flooding that occurred in Texas ... I've been talking about this for a very long time,' she said.
Multiple social media posts from the congresswoman dating to last year have consistently raised questions about human control over the weather.
The Republican's bill would classify weather modification as a felony offense similar to a recent law signed into effect in Florida, which makes it a third-degree felony to modify the climate in the Sunshine State.
Greene's legislation as of now has little chance of reaching the House floor for a vote since it has not even been assigned to a committee for a hearing or mark-up.
Her measure is cosponsored by exactly one other member: Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, who wrote in defense of Greene after she was accused of stirring conspiracies.
'Why are you mad at [Rep. Greene] for raising the question of "weather modification"? If it doesn't exist then what does it hurt?' he posted Tuesday morning.
'It's an issue that many Americans talk about, and it gets largely ignored and people that have been talking about this for years and years, they get called conspiracy theorists,' Greene told the Daily Mail. 'This is an extremely popular issue among Americans, and I've been looking into this for a very long time, and I'm happy to be leading the charge on it, because it really it's something that needs to be pushed to the forefront,' she added.
Her alarming post about weather engineering came just before she published a heartfelt statement about the families impacted by the deadly Texas flooding.
But not all Republicans are on the same page when it comes to weather modification.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz even shot down the idea that the practice is to blame for the deluge leading to the flash floods last week.
'To the best of my knowledge, there is zero evidence of anything related to anything like weather modification,' Cruz said at a press conference addressing the floods on Monday. 'Look, the internet can be a strange place,' the senator added. 'People can come up with all sorts of crazy theories.'
According to the bill's text seen exclusively by the Daily Mail, the measure defines geoengineering or weather modification activity as 'any injection, release, emission, or dispersal of any chemical, chemical compound, substance, or apparatus into the atmosphere conducted for the express purpose of - producing changes in the composition or behavior of the atmosphere; affecting the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight; or counteracting of mitigating climate change or climate systems.'
Cloud seeding, for example, is a practice where aircraft release chemicals into the atmosphere so that clouds absorb them and subsequently drop rain. It is legal in most states, including Texas.
Still, Greene was blasted by meteorologist Matthew Cappucci after her post, which he likened to 'idiocy.'
'It's not a political statement for me as a Harvard-degreed atmospheric scientist to say that elected representative Marjorie Taylor Green doesn't know what the hell she's talking about,' the D.C.-based weatherman responded to the Republican's post.
'She'd be equally qualified to fly a Boeing-737, practice nuclear medicine or train zebras,' he continued.
'Given my role in media, I'm not allowed to call anyone an idiot,' Cappucci continued. 'However, what I can — as a scientist — say is that Marjorie's mis-informed tweets regarding conspiracy theories/weather modification are commensurate with the level of education colloquially referred to as idiocy.'
Greene pushed back on claims that weather issues are out of her lane by claiming it is a top issue for residents in her district.
Greene has for years posted about the issues with weather modification.
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