To say it'll never happen and keep going a long in a wasteful way isn't the answer either. It's a fight, and no one can stop fighting until we've won.
There is no one single answer. ALL ideas must be used to create the solution. Little by little. It'll never be overnight, no.
Personally, I don't think there's enough education of the public on just how bad the oil dependence and global warming issues are.
Hell, most people still think that global warming is a lie.

Solar, Wave, and Wind energy are all very important. Ethanol doesn't work not because of its cost, but because of the "flex fuel" thing. You've now created an engine, in a massive SUV no less (which I don't feel is a good match for ethanol to begin with) that is neither petrol efficient, nor ethanol efficient. An engine needs to be designed for ethanol to make ethanol to work. Small high-compression engine in a light to medium class passenger car would work. but using a low-compression V8 built on a design from the 60s is why ethanol has failed.
There are technologies coming, like the various algae technologies (oil and alcohol) that will help IMMENSELY, if they can just get manufacturing down, but I feel that's another issue, I don't think these startups look at manufacturing efficiencies very thoroughly, so new technologies fail because they're not profitable, not because the idea doesn't work, but the manufacturing process failed.