Ask Washington politicians what they’re doing about climate change or America’s dependence on foreign oil, and the talk pretty quickly zeros in on “green technologies.”

The Obama administration and its allies in Congress are going to great lengths to identify innovations that could be commercialized with sufficient government funding to create a more self-sustaining, cleaner energy future.

It’s a future that at times sounds like a cross between the Jetsons and the back-to-nature Swiss Family Robinson.

Consider that residents of Boulder, Colo., are already using advanced electric meters to calculate exactly how much energy individual appliances consume, so they can decide whether to unplug a spare freezer in the garage.

Drivers around Palo Alto, Calif., are embracing plug-in hybrid cars that promoters say are capable of operating for the equivalent of less than $1 per gallon.

Elsewhere, companies are studying how to harness the power of ocean currents and wind to generate power for the nation’s manufacturing base and how to sequester carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants in underground reservoirs.

Much of the development work is inspired by federal research incentives born out of fears about global warming and recent memories of $4-a-gallon gasoline. Last October, Congress rolled production tax breaks for wind and solar energy into a financial industry rescue package. And approximately 10 percent of the spending in the $787 billion stimulus law President Obama signed in February is devoted to green initiatives, including “smart grid” projects allowing two-way communications between utilities and power users, efforts to make public buildings more energy efficient, and loan guarantees and other funding for advanced battery research and renewable-energy projects.

“We see this as changing the face of the economy,” says Betsy Mullins, vice president for government and political affairs of TechNet, a Washington trade group. “It is something that, cost-wise, is going to be extremely expensive to do, but it is something that will shift the entire national economy and be significantly important for our nation’s future.”

Obama made green technology a cornerstone of his initial budget proposal, which he unveiled at the end of February, noting that other countries are in a high-tech race to reshape power generation and create new modes for transportation. “If we lead the world in the research and development of clean energy technology, we can create a whole new industry with high-paying jobs that cannot be shipped overseas,” he said in the fiscal 2010 budget message he sent to Capitol Hill.

The new president notably wants to work with lawmakers to institute a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and about 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. This has spawned a flurry of legislative activity that goes beyond merely designing a market-based system to trade pollution credits. Both the House and Senate are expected to consider proposals to develop a new generation of coal-fired electric plants that capture and store carbon emissions. They are weighing how much to fund the Energy Department’s research into geologic storage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and whether to modernize the power grid by building new transmission lines or deploy meters like the ones in use in Boulder.

“One thing that’s clear to me both from the Obama proposals and those in Congress is that technology and innovation are the only viable long-term solutions to America’s energy challenge,” said Bruce Mehlman, executive director of the Technology CEO Council, an industry group that’s promoting green technologies.

An analysis of clean technology options in the United States by the business consultancy McKinsey & Company concluded that by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 3 billion to 4.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide — and at a cost below $50 a ton. The savings would be even greater if the nation embraced more conservation efforts, the report said.

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