Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and five GOP colleagues today will introduce a bill that gives President Obama 60 days to make a call on the Keystone XL pipeline, a fresh signal that the White House's delay in ruling on the Canada-to-U.S. oil link is only heightening the political drama that surrounds it.

The Senate Republicans' legislation requires Obama to provide a "justification" report to Congress within 15 days if he rejects a permit for Keystone XL, which is lambasted by environmentalists and liberal lawmakers who view its daily capacity of up to 800,000 barrels of Canadian oil sands crude as a wallop to the fight against climate change.

But like a similar measure that cleared the House in July, the bill steers Obama toward a positive finding by stating that the pipeline would "serve the national interest."

McConnell's presence on the bill, whose lead backer is Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), suggests that Republicans plan to keep pressing the State Department to relax its 2013 timeframe for conducting a fresh environmental review of the pipeline, focusing on alternative routes through Nebraska.

Keystone XL sponsor TransCanada Corp. struck a deal earlier this month to move its line away from Nebraska's environmentally sensitive Sandhills, effectively defusing one of greens' most high-profile arguments against the $7 billion project (E&E Daily, Nov. 15).

The "bill will spur job creation quickly -- not wait until after the election -- and reduce America's dependence on oil from volatile regions," its backers wrote in a summary.

Another indication that the Senate GOP's pro-XL push could pick up steam is the leading role played by Lugar, the party's top member on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, which shares jurisdiction over State's review of the XL line.

Facing a difficult primary campaign against a tea party-backed challenger, the Hoosier may be well-served to use a pro-pipeline push to burnish his conservative credentials heading into the thick of the re-election race.

Lugar has spoken to Foreign Affairs Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) about a hearing on Keystone XL, according to a spokesman. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) publicly pressed Kerry on that point earlier this month, soon after State delayed its final decision on OKing the project (E&E Daily, Nov. 18).

The Senate GOP legislation specifically addresses TransCanada's agreement to move the pipeline away from the Sandhills, requiring a final permit to adhere to the route agreed to by Cornhusker State officials. Among the bill's other sponsors are Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), who withheld his endorsement of the XL line until it was rerouted, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Given Democratic control of the upper chamber, even House-side action on a similar bill is unlikely to increase its chances of winning a Senate floor vote. Should the Keystone XL measure make it to the floor, its liberal critics are all but assured to mount public pushback.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who successfully pushed for State's inspector general (IG) to probe departmental decisionmaking on Keystone XL, yesterday vowed to "vigorously oppose any efforts by Republicans in Congress to legislate a rubber-stamp approval" for the pipeline.

Calling the timing of the bill completely inappropriate" given the IG's review, Sanders added: "The more the American people learn about this project, and the significant greenhouse gas emissions and pollution increases it would cause, the stronger the opposition to it will become."

Click here to read a draft version of the Senate GOP bill.