Renew Oregon compares Big Oil to Big Tobacco

Kari Chisholm

In the wake of the fight over the Clean Fuel Standard in the closing weeks of the legislative session, the gloves are off at Renew Oregon.

In a new ad, to debut this weekend during the Oregon Ducks football game, Renew Oregon compares Big Oil to Big Tobacco. It's a powerful ad. Personally, I love it. The comparison of cigarettes to smokestacks is a powerful image -- and it's makes exactly the right point: We're all addicted to oil, and as hard as it's going to be, we have to wean ourselves off.

Of course, the strength of this message -- turning Big Oil into villains like Big Tobacco -- could also be a weakness. It wasn't that long ago that a tobacco tax measure failed at the ballot, with a surprising number of low-income urban voters voting against a tobacco tax (confounding typical left/right notions of urban/rural voters.) The oil industry is already painting renewable energy programs like the clean fuels standards as a "tax" that will hit low-income folks hardest.

Or maybe that's overthinking it.

What do you think? Discuss.

By Kari Chisholm Sept. 11, 2015 Posted in Video.