Exxon fails to get probe shut down

A FEDERAL JUDGE has dismissed Exxon's lawsuit seeking to shut down a state investigation into whether the oil giant misled the public about climate change.

Manhattan federal court Judge Valerie Caproni spiked Exxon's suit against the New York and Massachusetts attorneys general Thursday.

Caproni ruled the company's claims that the investigation was aimed at silencing Exxon from expressing its views on climate change were “implausible.”

Exxon was subpoenaed by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in November 2015, when he was looking for documents about the company's historical knowledge of climate change and its communications with interest groups as part of a probe into whether the company failed to disclose that information to its shareholders.

The oil company’s suit was based in large part on a 2016 appearance by Schneiderman had with former Vice President Al Gore, where the attorney general said he wanted to find “creative ways to enforce laws being flouted by the fossil fuel industry and their allies.”