If oil gets high enough, people will be willing to pay a much higher price for alternative energy, since the other choice will be expensive oil. I don't see the huge need for the government to support this. Just let capitalism work. I think the same thing about funding drug research on drugs for huge diseases like cancer. People will give all the money they have to give if there is a cancer drug that works. Let the companies gamble their own money to produce that drug, they're going to reap all the monetary rewards if it works.
Now that I think about it, tax breaks for traders don't sound like a bad idea, either. Help us pay for those higher gas prices that will come with the higher oil. How bout no capital gains taxes? Add a congressional pay cut...Sorry, must have dozed off for a second. Dreaming.