President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, addressing not only where the nation is but where he believed it should be heading. And the attention he paid to manufacturing and the general economy did not go unnoticed.

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Stephen Gold, president and CEO of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), applauded the President "for shining a primetime spotlight on American manufacturing" while encouraging the President and the Congress to actually start moving towards reform immediately to address the issues.

It's a sentiment echoed by the National Association of Manufacturers, who released the following statement: "We agree with the President on one point. Manufacturers are poised for a renaissance. However, it is 20 percent more expensive to manufacture in the U.S. compared to our largest trading partners. This cost gap is a barrier that must be eliminated. The existence of this gap is not the work of our competitors but rather is self-inflicted by Washington."

The key is laying out a plan – "a real one," says Dan Danner, president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business – and taking action to move that plan forward.

Read: Structural Challenges to U.S. Manufacturers Will Hold Industry Back

In other public policy news:

• Cause of Action, a non-partisan, non-profit organization, filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) in response to the Department of Energy's decision to impose "unreasonable energy efficiency standards on distributors, installers, and users of residential heating and cooling products in the United States," according to a release from HARDI.

  The association claims "the DOE not only ignored concerns from HARDI about these rule changes, but sidestepped the proper established rule-making procedures, instead choosing to dictate a rule without regard for its serious financial consequences."

  HARDI joins the American Public Gas Association (APGA) who has previously filed a petition on the matter with the Court of Appeals.

  Read more at: hardinet.org.
   

• The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors issued a legal advisory addressing the new California Transparency in Supply Chains Act that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2012. Under the act, "any retail seller or manufacturer doing business in California and who has annual global gross receipts in excess of $100 million, must: (1) disclose the company's "efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from its direct supply chain for tangible goods offered for sale," and (2) post this disclosure on the company's website with a conspicuous link to the required information on the home page of the company's website."

  While the act does not explicitly address wholesaler-distributors, they will likely feel the impact as a result of their customers being covered by the new regulation. Read more about the potential impact of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act at naw.org.