EPA Chief Sounds Alarm On Rogue Climate Group Launching Sulfur Dioxide Balloons To Geo-Engineer Earth

Rogue climate activists in Northern California are launching balloons filled with sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere in an effort to manipulate the Earth’s temperature. In exchange, the climate startup behind the operation sells “cooling credits” priced at $30 for a subscription or $5 to offset 1 ton of carbon dioxide. The startup’s unregulated operations are causing a major stir and have drawn the attention of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. 

“Make Sunsets is a startup that is geoengineering by injecting sulfur dioxide into the sky and then selling “cooling credits.” This company is polluting the air we breathe. I’ve instructed my team that we need to quickly get to the bottom of this and take immediate action,” Zeldin wrote on X. 

Make Sunsets is a startup that is geoengineering by injecting sulfur dioxide into the sky and then selling “cooling credits.” This company is polluting the air we breathe. I’ve instructed my team that we need to quickly get to the bottom of this and take immediate action. pic.twitter.com/9b6xPzMf4v

— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) April 15, 2025

Luke Iseman, the former director of hardware at Y Combinator, launched Make Sunsets a few years ago with the backing of Boost VC, Draper Associates, Pioneer Fund, and angel investors. 

Make Sunsets takes its name from the striking sunsets caused by high-altitude sulfur dioxide particles, like those observed after the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which temporarily lowered global temperatures by roughly .2°C for about a year.

Allowing rogue activists to play God with the climate is a disaster waiting to happen. These aerosols increase Earth’s albedo (reflectivity), causing temporary global cooling and potentially disrupting jet stream behavior. 

View NOAA form here. 

Here’s more from the EPA:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) submitted a demand for information to a startup company calling themselves “Make Sunsets,” which is launching balloons filled with sulfur dioxide (SO2) seeking to geoengineer the planet and generate “cooling” credits to sell. This issue was initially identified in 2023 during the last Administration, but no action was taken to find out more about this questionable startup and activity.

Make Sunsets is already banned in Mexico. Their website states they want to scale this activity significantly and have already conducted over 124 deployments. It is unclear where the balloons are launched and where the SO2 is from. Furthermore, it is not known if the company has been in contact with any state, local or federal air agencies. Thus, EPA is submitting a demand for information to get answers and plans to take additional actions as necessary.

A review of public records shows that Luke Iseman and Andrew Song manage operations at Make Sunsets. The entity is also listed as the founder of Insituform Technologies, Inc.

An address listed on Make Sunsets’ publicly available profile shows a mansion in Northern California.

Iseman’s X page is full of Make Sunsets’ latest operations:

10,000 Cooling Credits successfully deployed to stratosphere today via 6 balloons. This guy got put in RV jail while I got another tank of hydrogen to make sufficiently buoyant pic.twitter.com/rjOjBXQ7du

— luke iseman (@liseman) February 27, 2025

Happy New Year! First balloon launches of 2025. We had a special guest, Nick from @freethinkmedia, aka Hard Reset, who helped us launch balloons filled with SO2 and Hydrogen. Follow them for the upcoming video.

We launched 3 balloons that day. Here’s the 1st 🎈🧵 pic.twitter.com/C5dL8QZT3b

— Make Sunsets (@MakeSunsets) January 23, 2025

another 16 pounds of sulfur dioxide successfully delivered to stratosphere today! average altitude: 103,800 feet☁️🌋 pic.twitter.com/4G9AS5fZEq

— luke iseman (@liseman) January 22, 2025

He even boasted about his donation to a far-left climate organization called “Just Stop Oil.”

Just Stop Oil has been a rogue group targeting Tesla with repeated attacks.

Perhaps unregulated solar geoengineering in the hands of leftist climate activists isn’t such a great idea.

We’re confident the rabbit hole of this group’s associations goes much deeper—and even a quick look at the founders’ social media profiles suggests they’re idelogically aligned with the de-growth climate cult that has undermined Western economies while giving China a clear runaway with its coal-powered factories.