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Oversimplification of the issue. Taxes can shape consumer behavior, the cigarette tax is a good example. However, unlike cigarettes, gas is a necessity. You can choose to quit smoking, but you can't choose to not put gas in your car so you can go to work or get around.
The whole thing w/ "foreign oil" is just missing the point IMO. It's an international market, it's not as if the oil we produce are staying inside the country. Foreign oil, domestic oil, they all go into the same pile that is the international market. The only way to change that would be to nationalize the oil industry and/or severely restrict/ban oil exportation.
As far as renewables go, solar and wind are nowhere near advanced enough to replace coal in the US, and the only one that can - nuclear, gets all the bad press.
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1) Unless you live in NYC, Boston, or a town that invested serious public transportation, which unfortunately small. China already see the future and knows it cannot go around and invade/tap countries for resources, so it is aggressively pursing solar, wind and public transportation, as a national security policy.
2) Agreed.
3) Actually, you will be surprised how much Solar and Wind grew under the Obama Administration (So did gas and oil), but every panel you put up is a endless source of energy, meaning other fossil fuel can be diverted to other uses. Solar and Wind are never meant to completely replace fossil fuel (not likely for a long time) but supplement them in usage.