Going green these days means more than dressing for St. Patrick's Day. A recent visit to the New York Auto Show found every major car dealer showing off a hybrid of one sort or another, all designed to cater to the growing number of drivers looking for a hedge against increasing gas prices. Watching the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, I noticed a Chevron oil company commercial positioning themselves as eco-friendly, taking a page from the BP playbook which has been working this angle for years.

But leave it to the entrpreneurs like Richard Branson to see dollar signs while the rest of us grow more tight fisted each day. According to the NYT, which sent reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin to cover the exclusive conclave on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, Branson pulled together a mini summit that attracted the likes of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Larry Page (Google), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) and venture capitalist and founder of Sun Microsystems Vinod Khosla.

Talk ranged from the practicality of electric-powered cars to how much money would have to be invested in biofuels to reduce the price of crude to $35 a barrel, a prospect Mr. Khosla said he considered "totally realistic."

If Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wasn't off writing a book, he'd probably be pointing out in his column how the rising gas prices weren't such a bad thing after all. As an advocate of higher gas taxes as a means to cut down on consumption, he would be applauding recent developments. Branson's guest moguls enjoying the facilities at Branson's private island see the same opportunity. The rising prices have made it more practical to invest in emerging technologies which have the potential to evolve into multi million dollar businesses and cut into our energy consumption at the same time. Hey, the elusive win win we've all been looking for!

In another positive development, New York State's Governor David Paterson has declared his support for Mayor Mike Bloomberg's controversial congestion pricing proposal which would charge drivers $8 to get into the heart of Manhattan. I wonder how much more work would be getting done in Albany if Paterson didn't have to be spending so much time defending himself from charges of sexual misconduct.

[Photo of Branson and the gang by Andrew Ross Sorkin/New York Times]