A Time To Build: Climate, Jobs, and Justice for All is Dayenu’s new campaign calling on our policymakers to deliver on the promise of historic climate legislation, ensuring investments in climate, jobs, and justice reach every community – especially those that need it the most – without delay. 

By summer 2024, Dayenu leaders will have helped:

1. Stave off attacks on historic investments in clean energy, good jobs, and environmental justice.
2. Ensure federal agencies and key states and cities have plans to deliver climate investments to every community equitably,  effectively, and expediently,  especially frontline/environmental justice (EJ) communities.
3. Educate the American public – especially the American Jewish community – to connect the dots between climate legislation and tangible benefits in their community,  and inspire them to show up at the ballot box

The campaign name is inspired by the third chapter of “Kohelet” (Ecclesiastes): “A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven: to be born and a time to die… to tear down and a time to build up,” and so on. 

Now is the time. We’re in a new era. Last year, after decades of mounting public pressure and a sustained 18-month campaign, Congress passed the first piece of meaningful climate legislation. While far from perfect, the law sets us on a path toward a clean energy future, saving lives, creating millions of jobs, and beginning to address environmental injustice.

A time to build a just and livable future. Our collective task is to ensure that federal investments in climate, jobs, and justice reach all communities – especially those that need it the most –without delay. If we succeed, we will not only help realize the benefits of a clean energy future, but lay the groundwork for more ambitious climate action at the scale that science and justice demand.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 authorized nearly $370 billion in climate investments, including:

• Climate Solutions: $53 billion for clean electricity, more than $10 billion in tax credits and rebates for energy efficient buildings, and up to $7,500 back for each household that purchases an electric vehicle.
• Manufacturing and Jobs: $60 billion to support domestic manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles, and other clean energy technologies.
• Environmental Justice (EJ): $60 billion for EJ, including investments in community-led projects that address pollution and climate risks.
• Critically, the bill lowers energy costs for hard working families today while putting us on a path to a clean energy future for generations to come.

Just like the resources of the sun and wind, the legislation has limitless potential. Interest in the federal tax credits has soared and will likely surpass initial estimates. Combined with additional investments and incentives from two other recent laws – the  CHIPS and Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation or Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) –  and further action at the state level, the economic, community, and climate benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act increase exponentially. 

Dayenu created factsheets for many states, which you can access in this folder. For more details, check out Invest.Gov and/or read E2’s Clean Economy Works: IRA One-Year Review and Climate Power’s Clean Energy Boom report.

The legislation is far from perfect. Due to intense lobbying by fossil fuel companies and because of the influence of the politicians who do their bidding, the legislation includes dangerous concessions to the fossil fuel industry that will cause harm to Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income communities across the country, and could delay the energy transition we so desperately need.

The law falls short of the scale and scope of climate action needed to turn the tide of the crisis, and excludes other Jewish communal priorities that were in the initial proposal, such as the Child Tax Credit and paid family leave.

Nonetheless, this bill represents hope for a new kind of world – not one that is perfect, but one that gives future generations a fighting chance to survive and to thrive.

We need to call on policymakers at all levels of government to deliver the maximum benefits from existing climate legislation: millions of family sustaining jobs, billions of dollars flowing into underserved communities, and gigawatts of clean energy to power the clean energy future. If we succeed, we will not only help realize the benefits of a clean energy future, but also lay the groundwork for more ambitious climate action in the future. Together, we can make sure that the investments passed into law represent the starting point – the floor, not the ceiling – for climate action.

The fossil fuel industry and the politicians who do their bidding are cynically taking advantage of this crisis by calling for more drilling and mining in the U.S., while hiking prices at the pump and raking in record profits.

In many places around the world, renewables like wind, solar and geothermal are cheaper, more reliable, and faster to deploy than fossil fuels. Oil wells can’t be drilled tomorrow, and pipelines can’t be built in a week.

Our answer to this crisis can’t be more drilling rigs in peoples’ backyards, or pipelines through Indigenous lands and waters that lock us into decades more of a polluting fossil fuel economy. The legacy we leave to future generations must be a livable, just world powered by clean energy, not one decided by climate disasters or the whims of petrostate dictators.

Over the course of the campaign, we will use a variety of tactics – including direct advocacy to Members of Congress and state officials, teach-ins to educate voters and our communities, and public-facing actions – to keep the pressure on policymakers and inspire the public. To achieve our goals, we will be both proactive and responsive to the shifting state-of-play.

We’ll be targeting members of Congress to protect the funding for climate, good jobs, and environmental justice. Next, we’ll need to keep the pressure on Congress and the Biden Administration, plus some state officials, to ensure investments are reaching and enriching communities – especially underserved and environmental justice communities – not just big corporations. Throughout the campaign, we’ll be targeting the public to tell the story of a just, livable future that is so compelling, Americans will be inspired to demand their policymakers take further action, at the scale that science and justice demand.

Dayenu Circles – Dayenu’s network of chapters across the country – is the engine that drives our impact. This spring, we’re planning to reach thousands of people in our communities by postcarding at Purim celebrations/carnivals and delivering postcards to our governors and other elected leaders as part of the Purim tradition of sharing mishloach manot, or Purim baskets, with community members. Plus, we’ll have additional action opportunities through the spring. 

To get involved or learn more, fill out this Interest Form. We’ll then invite you to our weekly Office Hours. 

To learn more about Dayenu Circles and find one near you visit: dayenu.org/circles.

College students can always email us at [email protected] to get involved. All other young people ages 18-32 are welcome to reach out to us at [email protected] for more information.

Welcome! Feel free to email the Dayenu staff at [email protected]. To learn more about Dayenu Circles and find one near you, visit: dayenu.org/circles.

Individuals / Households. Use Rewiring America’s “Personal Electrification Planner” to make a plan.

Institutions. Our allies at Interfaith Power & Light have a helpful resources page and Frequently Asked On Federal Programs For Houses of Worship,

For Jewish institutions looking to continue their decarbonization journey, we recommend connecting with our friends at Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition: c[email protected].