For the natural gas part of the Obama plan, to succeed, the US needs to build LNG export terminals ASAP in both the Gulf and at the West Coast. Natural gas currently costs as little as 2.6 USD per BTU in the USA and it can sell for 16 USD per BTU in Asia and for 9 USD in Europe. It costs less than 1 USD per BTU to liquefy and transport natural gas anywhere on the planet so the business potential is obvious.

Currently the US is the world’s largest producer of natural gas producing about 11 million barrels per day in oil equivalents. However, for USA to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the gas industry the gas price and the profitability of the gas business must rise. Hence the need for the US to build LNG export terminals ASAP.

If America could do 50% of what the President said last night, the current economic crisis would be over in less than 5 years. Unfortunately, the (R) party will stop it.

I realize that 2 hours is not enough to detail all what should be done but two other major problems will have to be addressed soon:

1. PFC's currently used in packaging, stain protection sprays etc are destroying the immunity we received from vaccinations in the last 100+ years. The long lasting negative effects on children and adults health could be very costly. PFC's should be banned.

2. Sugar and many additives found in new colored sweet energy drinks, over-used by children, are addictive and will make obese out of most of them in a relative short time. Those energy drinks could become some of the most destructive junk food produced by our free industries and should be banned.

OK. Lets be open-mined and honest.

Most watching the State of the Union address were probably fans or relatively open to the President and his ideas. Most hardcore Republicans, I'm sure, didn't bother watching. Minimally, there were significantly more Democrats than Republicans watching. So, I think the CBS polls are completely irrelevant.

But in terms of the issues:

The President called for an end to oil subsidies, something he also called for when Democrats controlled Congress, but he couldn't accomplish.

So, what was the point?

In my opinion it was politics, which is why Henry consistently blames Republicans, even though the Democratic party has also fallen short of Henry's expectations.

Maybe this problem is bigger than party politics...if we're going to be open-minded.

Likewise, I think most economists would reject the idea that the US is going to dominate the advanced battery industry, especially if the UAW is in the mix. The numbers just don't add up. China can crush the US industry the same way it did with solar. Moreover, countries with large lithium supplies want more of the manufacturing done locally in exchange for access to lithium, and most of the large South American ones aren't very impressed with US companies.

We'll be the innovators and hopefully we'll do a chunk of the manufacturing, but our potential is limited.

Moreover, nothing Obama did brought more oil on online. If anything his administration has limited capabilities, yet he suggested that this uptick was the result of his term. Please.

You can't argue on one hand that it takes many years to bring new oil and gas resources on line, then take credit for it when you haven't been around long enough. More political BS.

Then there is KeyStone, a case where the President could have shown real leadership, but he didn't. instead, he again played politics.

Real leadership would have found a work-around, especially when it would put into real world action what his speech was about last night. There was plenty of time for the President to develop his own plan instead of looking for a way to blame Republican and wait until AFTER the election, so he wouldn't lose some of the environmental vote.

The President can talk a good game, he's proven that, and might be able to put into action if he could hand pick the members of Congress, but he can't. Thus, what the President hasn't proven is that he can achieve real change, and ultimately that real change is going to require working with Republicans. That is the reality of today's political world in America.

That doesn't mean you have to like Republicans, but it does mean that if they control a enough of Congress, as they probably will continue to do so after 2012, you have to work with them. Otherwise, it's just more political blame without any results, as it has been for decades.

I for one am tired of all the political gamesmanship (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120125/D9SFO48G0.html).

In my opinion, it's pretty sad the lack of productivity in today's government because of the amount of time spent politicking -- not to mention the money spent campaigning.

"Then there is KeyStone, a case where the President could have shown real leadership, but he didn't. instead, he again played politics."

Your kind says the President supports unions and unions wanted the pipeline, so what is your excuse now?

@Chad
As I see it the KeyStone pipeline is currently off because it is not yet a project that can be said to be a >responsible development< of energy resources. Tar sands (or coal) can never be responsible. Instead, a little more time is needed to relaunch the KeyStone project as one that will transport tight oil from the US and Canadian bakken fields down to the Gulf refineries (there are at least 24 billion barrels of tight oil in bakken and KeyStone is the right project for moving that oil). That is a plan that can be branded responsible.

I agree that politics prevent too many good intentions from burning through. However, at least it is worse in most other countries, such as, Iraq if that can be of any comfort.

HEY, i said many times to do green algae fuels with the co2 released by big chimneys in natural gas and coal electric power-stations and recirculate it at the input. Is it clear now ?? ahhh... these clearks at high political level, they make me sick. They are just petrol resellers, im guessing that this website is a petrol reselling website where they explain to the most educated that we should continue to purchase unnessary petrol at higher and higher price and that we cannot technically do nothing about it. This website is maintained by big oil and is there for brainwasching and big oil pr.

Sorry. On reflection that "And Keystone pipelines leak more than most." line was over the top, and also not true.

in fact given the growth of oil production in North Dakota in the next few years we don't really need that Keystone pipeline in the short medium term. Not building this pipeline will in fact favor more oil production in US so the GOP should be happy..

Treehugger the whole thing is a political shakedown to extract money from the enviros & oil companies anyway...in that sense, dragging Keystone out is win-win for Obama and the republicans.

The Keystone project is just a reflection of our energy insecurity.

President Obama's "all of the above" energy strategy is too broad to pin down to any specifics. However, we can see one of the worst run example is Department of Energy's nuclear program, where they are ready to give out half a billion dollar just for a rehash of a smaller version of a Light Water Reactor. Meanwhile US is falling behind China in Molten Salt Reactor research. This is as business as usual as it can get.

"Moreover, countries with large lithium supplies want more of the manufacturing done locally in exchange for access to lithium, and most of the large South American ones aren't very impressed with US companies." The countries may want manufacturing in their countries and think that because they have some lithium sources they can dictate some conditions, but that would make them stupid. Lithium is not rare and the US has lithium and doesn't need south american lithium. In fact, even though the batteries are called lithium batteries the cost of lithium in the batteries is very low. Of the materials cost in a lithium ion battery, the lithium makes up about 3% of materials cost. The cathodes and separator are the most expensive parts. So south americans and the lithium scare mongers can eat dirt. We don't need them. Besides, this is not like burning oil, the lithium can be recycled.

It is the boards of directors in corporations that make these decisions. Apple makes the iPhone in China, they could make it here, but they don't. The only way people will get Apple to make iPhones here, is to stop buying them until they are.