In addition to hurting the wind power industry (below and here) the recession is hurting ethanol producers. It used to be that corn-based fuel was cheaper than refined petroleum, so gasoline producers were mixing in as much ethanol as they could get away with. Now that demand for fuel is down due to the economic slump, governmental requirements that producers mix in some ethanol are costing producers more than expected.
From what little I know, corn-based ethanol is just a bad idea to begin with. I support cellulosic ethanol production (i.e. that from bio-waste materials such as the wood chips and corn stalks mentioned in the article) but it's hard to imagine that turning food for people into food for cars makes economic sense. Of course, I can see why corn producers like it, but that's another issue!
