Following the news earlier this morning that the president-elect has decided to nominate ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson to be our next Secretary of State, #ExxonKnew activists have been churning out a steady stream of misinformation focused on defaming both the company and the secretary-designate – all with an eye on trying to insinuate themselves into a broader national discussion, into which they’d otherwise have no point of entry.

Given all that, we thought we’d take a second to tackle just a few of issues and accusations they continue to throw against the wall:

Charge #1: He got an award from Russia!

There has been a lot of interest in the Russian government’s decision to award the “Order of Friendship” to Tillerson in 2014. But let’s take a quick look at some of the other folks who have received this honorific over the years, including a few who will be quite familiar to environmental activists.

Let’s start with Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations (the body that runs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) who is perhaps the most notable recipient of the award. As the UN leader, Ban Ki-Moon has been spearheading international climate efforts since the 2010 climate conference in Cancun. He most recently headed up the UN Climate Summit in New York, ahead of 2015 Paris climate change conference.

Then there’s Jean Chretien, the former Prime Minister of Canada, who ratified the Kyoto Protocol. There’s also the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has forcefully lobbied in favor of international climate treaties and wrote a 2014 op-ed titled “The rich West is ruining our planet.”

O...