House Republicans today pushed all their chips onto an election-year bet that using energy projects as emblems of their jobs plans compared to President Obama's -- the GOP "Keystone economy" versus the Democratic "Solyndra economy" -- will resonate with voters.

Coming on the same day Congress geared up to clear a payroll tax cut deal seen as a missed political opportunity by most conservatives, the Republican push was an unmistakable attempt to shift the national conversation to friendlier terms as lawmakers prepare to face constituents during next week's recess. That today also marks the third anniversary of the White House stimulus law used to help the bankrupt solar firm Solyndra allowed the GOP to make its case even more aggressively.

Solyndra and the Keystone XL pipeline "have become iconic" in the political battle to define Obama's first term, Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) said today. "They are the poster children projects of the ineptness of this administration in dealing with the economy."

The flow of campaign advertising dollars through Republican-aligned advocacy groups to the airwaves is bearing out the party's "all in" approach, as Terry put it, to pushing the XL link between the Canadian oil sands and Gulf Coast refineries as well as similarly hammering Democrats on the White House loan guarantee to Solyndra. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce devoted some of a multimillion-dollar ad buy this month to Keystone XL, while two conservative advocacy groups have spent more than $9 million so far on anti-Solyndra ads (E&ENews PM, Feb. 9; E&E Daily, Feb. 8).

House Republicans lined up today to vow that their mouths would be where that money is going. Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas said that he would "talk about Keystone every single day, every opportunity I get" during the congressional recess.

Obama's decision to deny a permit to the $7 billion pipeline, which came after Republicans responded to a successful environmentalist campaign to delay a ruling by setting a 60-day deadline for a White House decision, "is an example of this president saying one thing and doing another" on jobs, Griffin added.

Reps. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Diane Black (R-Tenn.) and Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) sounded similar notes. "Framing the issue" in terms of the White House's government support for renewable-energy projects such as Solyndra, Young said, creates a "stark contrast" to the benefit of "those of us tasked with explaining the differences between ourselves and the president."

Practical hurdles

While the Solyndra-XL comparison may prove as potent a message as the House GOP hopes, both issues are fraught with obstacles that could prevent the party from notching any legislative victories before Election Day.

The House yesterday passed a sweeping energy measure that includes a fast-tracking of the oil sands crude pipeline, but the underlying transportation bill that it is attached to remains in trouble, and the Keystone XL provision is considered unlikely to survive potential conference talks with the Senate. Republicans in the upper chamber continue to push for a vote on their own plan to override Obama's pipeline veto, but Terry acknowledged today that it is unclear whether the GOP cause would be helped or hurt by such a proposal failing on the Senate floor.

Terry said he might advocate relenting on what has become an all-out Republican push for the project from TransCanada Corp. "if I had confidence that the president, unchecked, in a new term, would actually approve it. ... Killing it marries more to his environmental vision."

On the Solyndra front, Republicans remain in investigative mode while Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the Energy and Commerce subpanel chief leading the probe of the White House's support for the company, hints that he aims to pursue legislative reform of the Energy Department loan program.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) last week would not rule out looking at such a DOE-loans-focused proposal but warned that "all sorts of micromanagement by Congress" might not pass muster on his side of the Capitol (E&ENews PM, Feb. 10).

A fight with Republicans over the merits of government investment in clean energy and a longer environmental review of Keystone XL also appears to be one that the White House is ready to have. Top Obama campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter signaled as much last month by telling MSNBC that Republicans "were warned" of negative consequences from their 60-day deadline for a pipeline ruling, a comment made hours before the president's re-election campaign dedicated its first TV commercial to a defense of his administration's clean energy supports.

The White House mounted a similar defense of the entire stimulus law today, with Vice President Joe Biden publishing an op-ed in four swing-state newspapers that defended the statute for doing "what we asked of it." Republicans countered by reminding voters that the administration had predicted national unemployment rates no higher than 8 percent if the stimulus became law -- a rate long ago exceeded.

Democrats on Capitol Hill joined Obama aides today in predicting that the GOP's Solyndra-versus-Keystone message would fall flat with voters.

"The development of energy as innovative manufacturing in America is important, and being able to start a new industry is important," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said today in defending the value of federal involvement in companies such as Solyndra. "And virtually all the governments subsidize in other countries, we don't, so the loan guarantee is one way that you can help a new industry get started."

Reporter Hannah Northey contributed.