As a House Republican plan to speed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline takes a step closer to passing as part of the chamber's long-term transportation bill -- over the objections of some of the oil link's Democratic backers -- their Senate GOP counterparts prepared a similar push for the Canada-to-U.S. project.

When the Senate Finance Committee today takes up a proposal for $9.6 billion in offsets for a two-year transportation bill, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) plans to offer an amendment that would override last month's White House rejection of Keystone XL. The move from Hatch, the panel's top Republican, comes as the House Energy and Commerce Committee prepares to sign off on a similar pro-pipeline measure that could shed support from conservative Democrats who backed the project in a test vote last year.

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), one of the 47 Democrats who voted in July to fast-track a decision on Keystone XL, lambasted committee Republicans yesterday for continuing to pursue another pipeline bill in the face of its all-but-certain demise -- either in the Senate or at a stroke of President Obama's veto pen.

"I happen to be one of those in this committee who wants to support this legislation," Dingell said of the proposal from Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) that would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 30 days to approve a permit for the 1,700-mile pipeline. "Unfortunately, the actions of leadership here are making it impossible for me to do that."

The Senate-side pipeline plan pushed by Hatch would not give FERC jurisdiction over the $7 billion oil link, but it could draw support in committee from Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) or Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), both of whom are public supporters of the project. Other aspects of the Hatch amendment, however, such as its rescission of $1.5 billion in clean-car loan money and offshore drilling expansion, make Democratic support less likely (see related story).

Both Keystone XL proposals are bitterly opposed by liberal Democrats, who are beginning to sharpen their political message against the pipeline by predicting that its 700,000-plus barrels of Canadian oil sands crude ultimately would be exported off the Gulf Coast, driving up U.S. gas prices in the process. "We might help with job creation in other countries" by permitting the XL line, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said yesterday, "but it won't do much for the United States."

Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) strongly rebutted those charges, quipping that they would give lawmakers "the authority to repeal the law of supply and demand" and jabbing at the White House as he wondered why Democrats would discount the lower-end estimate of 4,000-plus temporary jobs created by the project.

The pipeline's critics are "ignoring the fact that 5,000 jobs would make Keystone XL a much better job creator than many taxpayer-funded projects funded under the stimulus package," Upton said yesterday. "Before Solyndra went under, it employed 1,100 people and cost taxpayers over half a billion dollars. Today, Solyndra isn't creating any jobs except for a few bankruptcy attorneys."

Upton's invocation of the defunct, government-backed solar company that the GOP hopes to use as an election-year weapon against Obama underscores the degree to which Keystone XL has joined Solyndra as a political football. House Republicans and greens who blast the pipeline for increasing emissions-heavy development of Canada's oil sands have commissioned dueling polls in recent weeks in an attempt to amplify their respective messages on the project.