It may be stating the obvious, but the essential Washington, DC, energy question now is the extent to which growing concern about the general US economy will divert political attention from global climate change.Conventional wisdom holds that the economy always trumps the environment, especially when consumers—many of whom vote—start to complain about high prices. Global warming is part of the national vocabulary, but concern about it still doesn’t resonate as much at the polls as middle class economic hardship.It also is going to remain a key energy issue. The oil and gas association executives interviewed for the US Energy Politics special report were unanimous on that p...