Death by a thousand cuts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2008/12/death_by_a_thousand_cuts.html

renewable fuels hit by falling oil prices

This decade’s historic high prices for oil and natural gas have stoked the rise of renewable power and alternative fuels. As fossil fuel prices smashed record after record, options like ethanol, hybrid electric cars, solar power and wind looked better and better.
Now oil costs less than half what it did this summer. Ditto natural gas. [...]