Things keep looking worse and worse for the oil industry.

After documents dating back as far as the 1940s revealed companies coordinated to cover up the industrys role in climate change , several corporations, including Exxon Mobil, now face a fraud probe and mounting public outrage. Many have said the climate change cover-up rivals that of big tobaccos decades-long scheme to mislead the public about the health risks of smoking assertions the oil industry continues to shrug off .

But a new trove of documents compiled and released Wednesday by the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law , or CIEL, provides further evidence that the comparison to big tobacco is valid and that the two industries have even worked collaboratively for over a half-century.

The documents, according to Carroll Muffett, president of CIEL, show oil and tobacco giants have long shared marketing and advertising strategies , research institutes , PR firms and even scientists.

And contrary to popular belief, Muffett told The Huffington Post, tobacco companies got their playbook from the oil industry, not the other way around.