Indeed, imagine if Nixon launched Project Independence, a "Manhattan Project" for clean energy, with the goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency by 1980. Imagine he launched this sometime around, I dunno, November 7, 1973. Just think where we might be today!
People seem to have forgotten that the Federal Government has pumped $billions into green energy research over the past decades, with little to show. I haven't heard ahy good arguments for why Obama will have more success.
http://www.energy.gov/about/timeline1971-1980.htm
Amusingly enough, the actual Manhattan Project did give us a clean source of energy. We just don't want to use it.