STEVE MILLOY: Trump’s EPA Is Right To Be Skeptical Of ‘Sun-Blocking’
Steve Milloy
Contributor
April 21, 2025
6:51 AM ET
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin acted this week to stop a dubious, if not dangerous, idea: blocking sunlight with air pollution to cool the planet.
Make Sunsets is private company in South Dakota that launches balloons containing sulfur dioxide particles into the stratosphere. When the balloons reach the proper altitude they burst and release the particles. In the sky, these particles reflect sunlight so that it doesn’t reach the Earth and contribute to global warming. Or so they claim. (RELATED: STEVE MILLOY: The Interior Department Must Enforce Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban)
Make Sunsets’ business model is to sell “Cooling Credits” for as little as a dollar each. Every Cooling Credit is supposed to counteract the warming caused by one ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Purchasers receive an email notifying them of a successful balloon burst including video of the burst.
There are potential problems with what Make Sunsets is doing and Administrator Zeldin is rightly concerned about at least one of them – the sulfur dioxide particles are a form of conventional air pollution. Their reflectivity is temporary. They will eventually fall to Earth, likely caught up in rain. To maintain or increase the claimed effect, balloons would need to be continually launched. It sounds like a great business model on paper.
But sulfur dioxide particles were a major contributor to the mid-20th century problem called “acid rain,” caused by the burning of high-sulfur coal without smokestack emissions controls. All rain is acidic, but the addition of sulfur dioxide makes it significantly more acidic. During the 1950s, Pittsburgh residents reported stinging sensations on their skin during rainfall. Under certain windless weather conditions called temperature inversions that trap and concentrate air pollution, sulfur dioxide particles were deadly to vulnerable people during a few major 20th century air pollution events.
https://dailycaller.com/2025/04/21/steve-milloy-trumps-epa-is-right-to-be-skeptical-of-sun-blocking/
