I agree that recent events have caused people to look for alternative fuel sources, but there's no guarantee we'll end up with clean alternative fuel sources. That should be made a priority. Biofuels, for example, have clearly been a disaster in broad terms (food supply and expense, etc) and there's been some doubt about how clean they really are.
Re. your second point: we don't have smogs in most western nations today, but there are other effects specifically from motor fuels, particularly diesel, which creates more particulate matter than petroleum. This has been implicated in the increased incidence of asthma in western nations, and is also thought to exacerbate hay fever.
Biofuels aren't a disaster in general. It's only corn-based ethanol that's a disaster. Ethanol from sugarcane is significantly less of a disaster, though unfortunately not much sugarcane is grown in the US. Ethanol from switchgrass or other random biomass is an even better idea, if we can get it working.
Re. your second point: we don't have smogs in most western nations today, but there are other effects specifically from motor fuels, particularly diesel, which creates more particulate matter than petroleum. This has been implicated in the increased incidence of asthma in western nations, and is also thought to exacerbate hay fever.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18280198?dopt=AbstractPlu...