The high cost of oil is driving the public and politicians to adopt policies that the environmentalist movement has opposed for the past 40 years.
Paul Kennedy is listing the multiple global reversals in reaction to global warming and even despite of it:

The major return of many governments to nuclear power - with dozens of new [...]

By Martin Fackler (The New York Times)
THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2008
Japan’s re-invigorated coal industry is an example of how higher commodity prices are driving a search for resources even in some of the world’s most urbanized and developed nations