Last week, Exxon Mobil agreed to buy Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5 billion. This deal would create the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the Permian Basin, the field that produces more than 40 percent of America’s oil. If the deal goes through, other companies like Chevron could soon follow suit, buying up smaller companies as they come under pressure from investors to match Exxon’s size.

Democratic Argument

The proposed deal would undermine democracy in the United States. In politics, concentrated interests, like rich corporations, have powerful advantages over diffuse interests, like voters, that can distort outcomes and thwart progress. Take climate legislation. A majority of Americans want to see the environment protected, but big companies that pollute heavily have an interest in watering down legislation that might reduce their profits. As a result, progress on energy policy has been agonizingly slow.

Exxon has also taken steps to shape the way voters think about the environment by sowing public misinformation and funding conservative groups disguised as grass-roots organizations. For instance, in July 1977, Exxon’s own senior scientist James Black told senior management that fossil fuels were causing climate change. Publicly, however, Exxon painted a very different picture. Lee Raymond, Exxon’s chief executive from 1993 to 2005, reportedly announced at a shareholders’ meeting, “I’m not convinced that the earth is warming at all.” In 2006, Exxon finally publicly acknowledged climate change risk for the first time, but as recently as 2016, according to a Wall Street Journal article published last month, it was still supporting “research that questioned the findings of mainstream climate science.”

Allowing Big Oil to become Bigger Oil means more money for this kind of research, plus more money for lobbyists, industry interest groups and media advertising, all of which undermines efforts to pass legislation strong enough to meet the world’s climate goals. The cumulative effect of it all on democracy would be so significant that regulators ought to be paying close attention.

Investor Argument

A second reason for concern is the yawning gap between what Exxon says to investors and what it actually does. The company said as recently as August that it continues to support the Paris climate agreement. But it also said that the world isn’t on track to reach the targets of the agreement. The Pioneer deal not only seems to be a huge bet to take advantage of that expected failure; it is also a commitment to contribute to the failure. By doubling down on its oil and gas strategy rather than investing in low-carbon technologies, Exxon is actively undermining the agreement that it claims to support.

Antitrust Argument

Authorities should also be concerned because the proposed deal could hurt Americans economically. Larger, consolidated oil companies have incentives to restrain production, restricting supply to artificially sustain high prices. Higher oil prices would mean higher gasoline prices at the pump — a classic antitrust concern. Perhaps even more significant, Exxon’s purchase of Pioneer could give it market power to hurt workers and small companies in Texas’ oil sector by driving down wages and weakening safety standards.

Even with these clear democratic and economic concerns, the legal path to blocking the deal could be difficult. In recent decades, the courts have not taken kindly to antitrust cases rooted in environmental or democratic arguments. But there are, nonetheless, a number of avenues open to regulators.

Under Lina Khan’s leadership, the Federal Trade Commission has taken a more aggressive approach to considering how market domination by individual companies hurts American society. She could, if she so chose, begin an investigation into Exxon’s proposed acquisition — and eventually bring it to court. Her legal team could make a case built around the potential harm the deal would do to competition in the oil market. But even if that case failed, the mere fact that the government was willing to open a serious investigation into Exxon’s deal with Pioneer could discourage some of the other mergers and acquisitions that are now widely expected throughout the oil industry.

The Federal Trade Commission should not be alone in this fight. The Securities and Exchange Commission should consider whether Exxon has misled its investors with regard to climate change. And Congress could also hold hearings on the proposed deal. If legislators want to build the political momentum required to enact the policies the United States needs to cut its emissions meaningfully, then it will be essential to expose the oil companies’ lack of credibility on this issue and to curtail their overwhelming political influence.