The leader of the Senate's bid to fast-track the Keystone XL oil pipeline over White House objections yesterday fired back at an environmental group that argues the project would increase U.S. gasoline prices by allowing refiners to export more diesel overseas.

Sen. John Hoeven's (R-N.D.) push-back at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) underscores the urgency for pipeline supporters of controlling the public message on Keystone XL as Republicans push for its inclusion in a bicameral transportation deal. With talks on that accord ramping up next month, the GOP can ill afford to let greens attempt a rebranding of the $5.3 billion project as bad for pump prices.

"That the Keystone XL pipeline will help reduce the price of fuel at the pump just makes sense, because a basic law of economics is that increasing the supply of something will decrease its price," Hoeven wrote in a column prepared to respond to the NRDC report on Keystone XL.

Because a barrel of oil produces about twice as much gasoline as diesel on average, Hoeven added, the bulk of the 830,000 barrels per day of heavy crude set to travel through the XL line "will have to be refined into gasoline."

The projected increase in diesel production along the Gulf Coast if Keystone XL were built formed only one thread in the environmental group's politically volatile attack on the pipeline. NRDC's intricate argument rests on projections by project sponsor TransCanada Corp. of a rise in Canadian crude prices following the fuel's successful dislodging from a bottleneck in Cushing, Okla. (E&E Daily, May 23).

A January 2011 report by the group contended that Canadian oil sands crude presents a greater corrosion and leak threat to pipelines than conventional fuel, a charge that continues to power continentwide debate and fierce resistance from industry (Greenwire, Aug. 23, 2011). Less than a year after its release, Congress attached language to a pipeline safety reform bill that sets up a comprehensive study of the issue.

Hoeven, in his column yesterday, challenged one of the authors of the pipeline safety study who also put together this week's gas-prices report on Keystone XL.

"Its author is a lawyer, not a scientist or an economist," the senator said. "It therefore seems more than convenient that the 'study' just happens to correspond with the group's position on the Keystone XL pipeline."

Hoeven also blasted NRDC's contention that Keystone XL would increase greenhouse gas emissions, thanks to the larger carbon footprint of oil sands extraction and refining relative to that of conventional fuel. Even if the pipeline is never built, he wrote, "the oil will still be produced; however, instead of coming to the United States, it will be shipped to China."

In fact, the Canadian oil industry's major new pipeline route to Asian markets -- known as the Northern Gateway project -- remains mired in concerns from First Nations aboriginal communities and plagued by the same conservationist resistance that has slowed Keystone XL.

A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report released last week, citing federal studies used in the environmental analysis of the pipeline, said Keystone XL would boost annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by between 0.06 and 0.3 percent. That range is equivalent to the emissions generated by between 588,000 and 4,061,000 passenger cars, according to CRS.

NRDC's Anthony Swift, author of the gas and diesel pricing report, responded via email that Hoeven is "clearly finding it easier to attack the messenger than the message" his study sends of higher pump costs if the pipeline is built.

"His argument that if we don't use tar sands, China will, is both out of touch with the political reality on Canada's western coast and is the sort of rationalization that has supported most of humanity's particularly poor decisions," Swift added of Hoeven.

Hoeven ended his response to NRDC by noting that its study was released concurrently with the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in his home state, which would generate an estimated 100,000 of the daily barrels of crude set to run through the XL line. Among the attendees at Williston were House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Rick Berg (R-N.D.), whose appearance was part of the GOP's recess-week energy messaging tour.

Attendees at Williston, Hoeven wrote, focus on "new technologies that will produce more energy for our country with good environmental stewardship. That is just the kind of discussion we should be having."

In addition to McCarthy and Berg's visit, Arkansas Republican Reps. Rick Crawford and Tim Griffin visited the headquarters of a steel company in their home state that laid off workers due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the pipeline. Republicans have seized on the situation at Welspun's Arkansas plant, but Democrats push back by noting that its parent company is Indian and does not use U.S.-made steel (E&ENews PM, Feb. 7).