With their bid to override President Obama's veto of the Keystone XL pipeline still in limbo, Senate Republicans yesterday opened a new front for political pressure on the White House: linking the project to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

The legislation offered by Sens. David Vitter (R-La.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) would prevent Obama from releasing fuel from the SPR until the XL line is approved. While it is unlikely to prove an immediate weapon in the ever-escalating battle over the $7 billion pipeline, the bill could become more valuable to the GOP as the summer driving season nears and gas prices climb back toward $4 per gallon, a near-certainty in the eyes of many analysts.

The new Senate bill is not Republicans' first attempt to warn Obama that opening the SPR for a second year in a row would not come without heartburn on the campaign trail. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last week issued a pre-emptive strike that linked the fuel reserve to Keystone XL (Greenwire, Feb. 6).

Obama spokesman Jay Carney yesterday underscored the high stakes surrounding the SPR, telling reporters that the administration would not rule out a release of fuel to counter rising pump prices that it is watching "very carefully."

Carney spoke hours before the White House cited the 1,700-mile Canada-to-U.S. oil pipeline in issuing a veto threat against a House Republican transportation bill that includes language overriding Obama's Keystone XL rejection (see related story).

The House GOP transportation bill "seeks to circumvent a longstanding process for determining whether cross-border pipelines are in the national interest by mandating the permitting of the Keystone XL pipeline project despite the fact that the pipeline route has yet to be identified and there is no complete assessment of its potential impacts, including impacts on health and safety, the economy, foreign policy, energy security, and the environment," the White House wrote yesterday.

That House legislation also contains a new prohibition on legal challenges to the expediting of the XL link, according to an analysis that House Democrats circulated last night.

Such court battles are a leading driver of resistance to the GOP pipeline plan among red-state Democrats. "I'm very afraid that if it passed," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said of the Republican effort, "it would slow down the Keystone pipeline" thanks to multiple "lawsuits."

Conrad's party leadership, for its part, remained mum yesterday on whether a Keystone XL amendment would receive a vote during an upper-chamber transportation debate that is already running behind schedule as senators push for votes on a flurry of politically controversial issues. One Senate Democratic leader signaled yesterday that the pipeline could be kept from a floor vote.

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Democrats' third-ranked leader, said that he remains concerned about the pipeline on several fronts. "Will the oil that comes out of the pipeline be used in America?" he asked, echoing a popular criticism among Democrats. "Will the products be used in America?"

Click here to read the Senate GOP's new Keystone XL bill.