Moderate policies can’t solve climate- their ev is biased by FF industry cash

(Nicole, fossil fuels program manager for Friends of the Earth. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/readers-react-to-the-editorial-boards-green-new-deal/2019/02/28/9f72a302-3b77-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html , 2-28)

The Post’s editorials have supported the same moderate approach to climate change for a decade. But a decade of mild solutions hasn’t gotten us anywhere, and in that time the climate crisis has grown only more urgent. We now have the political momentum to push for legislation that could stop the worst of the climate crisis. Genuflecting to moderation for the sake of moderation — or worse, to placate the fossil-fuel industry and the politicians it funds — won’t help front-line communities already feeling the effects of climate change. There is simply no way to pull us back from the brink if we don’t end subsidies, halt all extraction and stop building new infrastructure for fossil fuels. And nuclear energy, a failed and dangerous experiment that has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, has no place in our clean-energy future. The exploitation of workers, communities and our natural resources are driven by a system that prioritizes polluter profits over people. To fight climate change, we must remake the system that fosters social inequities. A radical Green New Deal — one founded on a just transition for workers and communities that ends use of fossil fuels and nuclear power — is exactly what we need. The same moderate, weaker plans we’ve seen for a decade distract us from the bold solutions we need.