Sidley Austin

Think of Texas and the mental movie is obvious: old fashioned oil rigs, big hats, big hair, big boots and conservative politics. Not much room for innovation, information technology, renewable energy or energy efficiency efforts in that narrative, but Texas confounds expectations. Keep reading →


On September 19th, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent a letter to the CEO of each Fortune 500 company requesting detailed information on his/her company’s cybersecurity practices. Given the particular importance of the energy sector to overall U.S. cybersecurity readiness, Senator Rockefeller’s expectations as to energy sector responses will undoubtedly be high.

The introductory message of the Rockefeller letter is emphatically simple: [we paraphrase] “In the face of an unprecedented national security challenge, The Chamber of Commerce and other inside-the-Beltway lobbyists have thwarted the passage of The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 which was supported by the President and the country’s top military officers. I now call on each of you as business leaders and Americans to express your support for the legislative efforts necessary to protect our economy and country.” Punchy perhaps, but on a stand-alone basis it would not be more than one would expect to get from a Ranking Democrat on a hotly debated issue in an election year. It does not, however, stand-alone. Keep reading →