Low level druid spells are a little mediocre. They start getting better at 3rd so until then, you kind of have to muddle through. Entangle is good, but keep in mind that you do have to have plants/vegetation for it to work. Underground, or inside a building, it may not work. You could argue that there are small weeds growing up between the stones of a cobbled street if you're in a city, or roots growing down into an underground cave, depending on how lenient your GM is with it. It's best used before your party gets into melee range so they don't get hit with it; for instance if you manage to surprise an enemy or group of enemies, you could use it immediately to prevent them from advancing on you, and your party could then use ranged attacks to drop them if necessary.
I personally don't like Fog Cloud or Obscuring Mist much for the exact reasons you questioned; it hampers yourself and your party just as much as your foes. They're good for get-away spells to cover an escape, or in certain situations for sneaking past guards or such.
Summon Nature's Ally won't get useful until at least 3rd level since it only lasts 1 round/level, so at 2nd level you'll only get 2 rounds out of anything you summon (plus keep in mind it takes a full round to cast.) If you absolutely need to summon something, a Stirge is not bad as it has a good attack bonus and hits an enemy's touch AC, and an Eagle has a fast fly speed and gets 3 attacks on a full attack.
What did you take for your Nature's Bond? If you have a companion, definitely take Magic Fang at least once every day. At low levels, I find a Druid with a companion will be relying on her companion to be doing a lot of her damage for her.
Produce Flame is a pretty good spell, although it suffers the same round/level problem as Summon Nature's Ally (if you're using it to do damage, anyway.) Still, it can be used as a ranged attack and hits touch AC so even at level 2, I have found it to be pretty useful.
Faerie Fire can really make an encounter easier if you're fighting something with invisibility or a high stealth score.
Air Bubble can be surprisingly useful, but it is pretty situational. At 25gp a pop, though, it is worth a couple scrolls of it when you can afford them, for those times when you do need it.
Calm Animal is great...if you're fighting animals.
Longstrider is handy, but most especially at higher levels when it will last most of the adventuring day, especially if you're small and/or have medium armor (and thus a lower movement speed than most of the rest of the party.)
EDIT: Sorry, forgot you said CRB only...Air Bubble is from Ultimate Combat so that is out. I think all the others are from the CRB, though.
Entangle, obscuring mist and fog cloud are some of the best spells in the game.
You just have to learn how to use them. Tossing them around indiscriminately without working out the tactical benefits vs risks of them is not a good thing, but that is true of any spell.
If you have an approaching group of baddies, entangle can slow them down long enough for your party members to pelt them with ranged attacks. If you are getting your butts beaten in battle, you can have your party members disengage and toss entangle on the enemy and then flee. Entangle is one way to keep flying creatures on the ground.
Obscuring mist is a great way to protect your party from a ranged ambush. It's also a great way to balance the equation if your party is more melee oriented and they are fighting a more ranged opponent. It is also great at covering a retreat.
Fog cloud can be used to create battlefield choke points, concentrating the enemy in one place so that area of effect spells can be used to great effect.
Summon nature's ally can be great if you have a rogue in the party and the rogue needs a flanking partner. Since you can place the animal precisely where you want, you can coordinate your initiative with your rogue so that you go immediately before the rogue and the animal gives the rogue the flanking bonus. Any damage the animal provides is just a bonus in that situation.
Druids have some of the best battlefield control spells in the game.
However, having said all of that...
Man I don't get it when parties are made up of characters of significantly different levels...
Well as for entangle the spell will affect your party members, but you don't have to make a save for woodland stride to work. Second, Summon Nature's Ally doesn't get good until your level 3 because then you start to get the stronger animals like: crocodile, cheetah and the dire bat(dire's are stronger than the originals). I think the best one of that is Summon Nature's Ally IV because they have: Owlbears, dinosaurs, dire wolf, giant scorpion and a GRIFFON(can't believe that's an ally), you get that at level 4. My favorite spell for a druid is a level 5 spell, "Awaken".
Awaken-Animal or tree gains human intellect(I used this on my animal companion, he was a velociraptor with an int. of 2 now he's a 14. You don't have an animal companion you can use it on a animal you encounter. It will become like your animal companion. "The awakened animal or tree is friendly toward you. You have no special empathy or connection with a creature you awaken, although it serves you in specific tasks or endeavors if you communicate your desires to it. If you cast awaken again, any previously awakened creatures remain friendly to you, but they no longer undertake tasks for you unless it is in their best interests." So you can keep it as an ally and it will fight for you. They also get to take a class! My dinosaur has levels in ranger(I wouldn't make it do a spell casting type because they have to use a percentile for no thumbs). I would NOT recommend this spell onto trees, unless you need to protect something.
Well, I hope this helps. My first character was a druid and I played her for a long time. Good luck and may nature be with you.
-Dunali
Speak w/ Animal can occasionally be very helpful.
Entangle is really big. And it can be awesome if everyone in your group has a range weapon.
When you get second level spells you get all the ability buff spells, remember that putting owl's wisdom on yourself will bump the DCs of your spells by 2 points.
My personal fave Druid spell is Call Lightning, a third level spell.
Faerie Fire has saved my party's bacon more than once too.