2026/01/01 by Sika Gadzanku, Mayesha Ahmed, Sanya Carley
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Administration (probate law) #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Climate change #Cooperative federalism #Federalism #Investment (military) #Legislature #Policy Transfer and Learning #Politics #State (computer science) #Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
paper · doi:10.1093/publius/pjag024
published in Publius The Journal of Federalism 56(3), 656-689 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/07/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/24
Abstract The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act were the largest combined climate legislative package in US history, built on a cooperative federalism framework that distributed hundreds of billions in federal dollars through multilevel coordination across federal, state, and local institutions. This cooperative federalism approach was central to the Biden administration’s jobs-and-justice climate agenda, and premised on voluntary state participation, private sector alignment, and shared administrative capacity. In this article, we use three case studies—IRA labor requirements, IRA fossil fuel community support programs, and the Solar for All program—to evaluate whether this agenda proved durable through design and execution to the Trump administration’s more combative federalism approach. We conclude that Biden’s jobs-and-justice cooperative federalism approach produced measurable short-term impacts but remained structurally vulnerable, lacking the durability to withstand political transition. This evidence suggests limited opportunities for cooperative federalism in the current era of US climate policymaking.