Analysis reveals how the Inflation Reduction Act influences the environmental state, suggesting a need for nuanced understanding of decarbonization pressures.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) shifted the dial on American climate policy. What are its implications for the environmental state? I assess the theory's suitability for understanding US decarbonization. Environmental state literature understates security motivations, hybrid logics, and scalar pressures driving energy transition. Correctively, I foreground a Hobbesian–Hamiltonian 'sovereignty – security – prosperity' nexus anchoring the state's governing legitimacy. Linking Hobbesian and Hamiltonian ideas, I show how the Biden administration's Neo-Hamiltonian discourse reactivated this nexus, prompted by a new global conjuncture and diverse scalar pressures. Neo-Hamiltonian strategy responded selectively to decarbonization pressures, while legitimizing environmental limitations by fusing fossil energy, security, and economic prosperity to subordinate climate goals. It gave American transition strategy a 'one step forward, two steps back' character – decarbonizing domestically while intensifying fossil fuel exports. This strategic pragmatism threatens ecological calamity. The IRA reveals rising contestation, polarization, and potential reversal of environmental state trajectories.
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Jeremy Green (2025) studied this question.
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