U.S. judge dismisses Exxon suit seeking to stop climate change probes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday dismissed Exxon Mobil Corp's lawsuit seeking to stop New York and Massachusetts from probing whether the company misled investors and the public about climate change and the potential effects on its business.

U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan said Exxon's allegations that New York's and Massachusetts' attorneys general, Eric Schneiderman and Maura Healey, were pursuing bad-faith probes in order to violate its constitutional rights were "implausible."

Caproni dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the Irving, Texas-based oil company cannot bring it again.

Exxon had no immediate comment. Schneiderman's and Healey's offices also had no immediate comment.

The lawsuit began in June 2016, several months after Exxon received a subpoena from Schneiderman seeking details about its historical understanding of climate change and communications with interest groups and shareholders about the subject.

Exxon accused the two states' attorneys general of helping engineer a conspiracy to "silence and intimidate one side of the public policy debate" about climate change, and retaliate for exercising its free speech rights.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Leslie Adler and G Crosse)