Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Birmingham, one of 23 Republican co-sponsors of the bill, House File 191, said that while little is known about weather engineering technologies, a geoengineering prohibition was justified so further research could be done.

"It is incumbent on the state of Iowa to exercise sovereignty in this area," Shipley said.

Tennessee became the first state last year to enact a law banning geoengineering. Other states, including Kentucky, Arizona and Florida, have followed suit by introducing legislation eyeing a ban on geoengineering, which describes a range of large-scale interventions in the Earth's natural systems to directly combat climate change

What would the bill do?
Iowa's Environmental Protection Commission would have to adopt rules to enforce the ban on geoengineering.

The bill does not target any specific technologies, but broadly prohibits geoengineering.

More commonly known geoengineering methods are solar geoengineering and cloud seeding.