Posted by Brittany Stepniak - Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

If you watched the annual State of the Union Address last night, you probably noted Obama's emphasis on energy production here in the United States.

He wants to get ahead of the game, before other countries catch up...

He praised natural gas drillers for stimulating the economy, but called for a “common-sense” set of rules in order to enact safety procedures that would protect the public from problems associated with fracking.

Moreover, Obama called for an end to tax breaks to the industries, something he has been unable to achieve thus far in his term in office.

However, many workers in the oil and gas industry believe the federal government simply needs to stay out of the way...

Critics argue that Obama's speech was all too similar to many he's given in the past: it sounds idealistically good, all that's missing is the action to make it happen.

Chris Jarvis, president of Caprock Risk Management in Rye, New Hampshire, commented on the fact that Obama avoided some key issues such using more natural gas for transportation purposes.

"He was basically using his discussion on energy to deflect away from his critics versus really doing major changes with the U.S. energy sector and natural gas," Jarvis said.

Regardless, Obama announced that he would instruct his administration to “open 75 percent of the country's potential offshore oil and gas resources to drilling.

In the meantime, Obama was ardent in his defense for investing in clean, renewable energy.

Promoting technologies that produce clean electricity, Obama aims to have power plant zones developing 10 gigawatts of solar and wind power projects on public property.

The Defense Department intends to purchase one gigawatt of renewable energy and the Navy should purchase enough to power 250,000 homes per year.