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Constraints on the oil supply, coupled with ever-increasing demand, pushed oil prices to unprecedented heights, hitting $147 per barrel of crude in July. Did the high oil price push the world to invest seriously in clean energy? There is no shortage of promising technologies, from tidal power to biogas. But no 鈥� coal is making a comeback instead. The UK is planning its first new coal-fired power station in more than 20 years, more are proposed in the US, and China is building them at a fast rate. There has been much excitement about 鈥渃lean coal鈥� power plants that release less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but they probably won鈥檛 be available for years.

The US and European Union attempted to boost renewable energy efforts by setting ambitious targets for replacing transport fuels with biofuel from crops, such as bioethanol. This provoked a boom in planting 鈥� but the biofuel this produces may not even cut greenhouse gas emissions, while fuel production at the expense of food could worsen hunger. The prospect of cutting dependence on foreign oil, and the political entanglements that go with it, made bioethanol look good in the US, however, where farmers planted maize for making it from fence post to fence post.

Then financial crisis hit the world economy 鈥� a system already strained by, among other things, high prices for the oil that fuels it. The resulting lack of investment cash and even normal credit for operating industries has meant companies worldwide are failing or contracting, demand for oil is going down, and the oil price has plummeted with it.

This fall is nothing to celebrate. It is not happening because industries are finding better sources of energy to replace oil, or even because more oil has been found in the ground, but because people are losing jobs and going hungry. Worse, a lower oil price means less impetus for finding and developing alternative energy sources. As oilfields worldwide continue to be pumped out, however, the respite on prices is unlikely to last long.