Raise the price of gasoline...

I read that Denmark raised the price of gasoline in their country to something like $10 a gallon. This forced the country to reexamine their energy policies and dependence on foreign energy. Over the course of 10 years they are now 100% free of foreign oil and their country is mainly run on clean energy.

So, do we need to raise the cost of gasoline in order to break our addiction and 'fuel' innovation toward clean energy? We are already in what seems to be an economic recession, if we are getting used to cutting back why not raise the prices now and focus on getting the country by until these technologies (which already exist) become the standard?