The President's remarks about oil and natural gas development during the State of the Union speech Wednesday triggered many thoughtful--and thought-provoking--comments from bloggers around the country.

As the president said in his speech:

"[W]e need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development."

The National Association of Manufacturers' (NAM) Shopfloor blog hailed the president's comments but pointed out a disconnect between his statements and a cabinet-level agency:

"President Obama is certainly right in saying it's time" to make decisions on oil and natural development, Shopfloor wrote, but it added that the Interior Department had signaled it "would delay action on Outer Continental Shelf energy development 50 miles beyond Virginia's coast."

The Energy Outlook blog said:

If the president "is serious about [oil and natural gas development], he must reinforce that message with the agencies involved...We need more energy from our abundant domestic sources--including oil , natural gas, nuclear power and renewables--to get the economy growing at a pace sufficient to generate millions of new jobs."

The Foundry blog at the Heritage Foundation posted a comment which read:

"If [the president] believes that we need to gain access to our domestic energy resource by drilling our offshore waters, then he should lift the ban on those activities."

Right in a Left World wrote:

"America, we cannot continue to dilly dally around on this high unemployment, dependence on foreign energy sources and bankrupt economy...We are leaving the next generation and more in the future the highest debt and lowest number of jobs ever. We are leaving them with a staggering battle over fueling their energy needs..."

The oil and natural gas industry stands ready to work with the government to produce more domestic energy which can create jobs, generate government revenues, improve U.S. energy security, reduce the deficit, and provide affordable and reliable energy to American consumers.

All of this can be accomplished without stimulus spending. The industry just needs the opportunity to explore for and produce oil and natural in more energy-rich areas of the United States.