EPA's Scott Pruitt Dined With Fellow Climate Science Denier and Vatican Treasurer Cardinal George Pell, Documents Show

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One of the Catholic church’s most powerful figures, Australian climate science denier Cardinal George Pell, dined with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt and discussed a plan to set up a two-sided โ€œdebateโ€ about human-caused climate change, it has beenย revealed.

According to documents collated by The New York Times, administrator Pruitt joined Pell and others for a $240-per-head dinner in June 2017, an engagement that was left off official schedules of Pruitt’s Vaticanย visit.

In an email sent during the dinner, one EPA staff member said that Pell and Pruitt had discussed a Wall Street Journal article reporting on proposals for a military-style โ€œred team/blue teamโ€ debate on climateย science.

Climate science denial groups, including the Heartland Institute, have been pushing the idea of such a debate for years.ย  The proposal from Pruitt for the debate appears to be onย hold.

Vaticanย Ties

New York Times reporter Eric Lipton, sharing documents on Twitter, commented that Cardinal Pellโ€™s name had been left off multiple versions of Pruittโ€™s EPA schedule for the Vatican trip, which included a private mass and specialย tours.

Pell, who acts as the Vaticanโ€™s treasurer, has dismissed the science linking greenhouse gas emissions with dangerous climateย change.

Pruitt has also refused to acknowledge the science showing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning as a main driver of global warming.

Pell has previously given the annual lecture for the Global Warming Policy Foundationย (GWPF), a UK climate science denial group, in which he said adding CO2 to the atmosphere would be merely good news forย plants.

His speech was described by climate scientists as โ€œutter rubbishโ€ andย โ€œflawed.โ€

Global Warming Policyย Foundation

One GWPF funder, Australian hedge fund billionaire Sir Michael Hintze, has also donated millions for renovations at the Vatican and sits on the board of the Vatican Bank.ย Hintze has also been a major donor to the UKโ€™s Conservativeย Party.

Pell is also a long-standing spiritual mentor to former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who delivered the GWPFโ€™s 2017 annual lecture.

Pell has been on leave from the Vatican to return to Australia, where he is facing charges of sexual assault, which heย denies.

It was first revealed that Pell was under investigation in February 2016, but he was not formally charged until June 29 2017 โ€” almost three weeks after the dinner withย Pruitt.

Federalistย Society

Also at the dinner was the influential Leonard Leo, who heads the conservative judicial group the Federalist Society and who, according to an earlier report in The New York Times, had helped the EPA to organize the June 2017 Vaticanย trip.

The Federalist Society is a noted โ€œpipelineโ€ for Supreme Court appointments under the Trumpย administration.

In April 2018, it was revealed that Leo had been working as a conduit between the Koch brothers and senior staff at George Mason University.

Koch-funded organizations have been major donors to the university, with documents revealing how the Kochs were able to exert influence on the hiring of some staff at the universityโ€™s Mercatus Center โ€” a center established by theย Kochs.

Main image: EPA administrator Scott Pruitt speaks at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Credit: Zach D. Robertsย forย DeSmog

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