It’s Time To Stop Comparing Big Oil To Big Tobacco

It is not novel or particularly creative to compare Big Oil to Big Tobacco. Over the years, dozens (if not hundreds) of think pieces have been published to this effect, chronicling the myriad similarities between the two controversy-plagued industries and pointing to Big Tobacco’s past to predict Big Oil’s future.

While the comparison may be running the risk of growing trite, the sectors’ trajectories continue to share plenty of similarities, similarities that it is hard to ignore. There are, however, major differences between…