For Obama, High Oil Prices Have a Green Lining

When gasoline prices go up, Presidential approval ratings historically go down. So the current occupant of the White House is offering sympathy to drivers suffering sticker shock at the pump and publicly ruminating about releasing oil from the nation's strategic reserves. "For Americans already facing tough times, it's an added burden," Barack Obama said at a Mar. 11 news conference.

Still, there's a silver lining in higher oil prices—or, rather, a green lining—for Obama, who has made clean energy one of his paramount causes. Rising fuel costs could go a long way toward advancing Obama's "Win the Future" vision of an economy remade by green technologies, including electric vehicles, advanced batteries, wind and solar power, and high-speed trains. "If you want to make people switch toward cleaner energy sources," says Nigel J. Gault (IHS), chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight, "you need to change the price incentives people are facing. One way to do that would be to make traditional energy much more expensive."