Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today vowed that a House GOP bid to link payroll tax cuts hotly pursued by his party to a speedy approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline would go nowhere in the upper chamber.

Reid's rejection of the Republican proposal, which would also roll back U.S. EPA rules for industrial boiler emissions, drew kudos from environmental groups even as it suggested that congressional leaders could draw out their clash over the tax cuts. While House GOP leaders plan to vote on their new bill next week with an eye to adjourning before Dec. 19, furious lobbying and intense negotiating are likely to go on until the final days before Christmas.

Reid dismissed the Republican tax gambit within minutes of its introduction, saying in a statement that "with the middle class facing a huge tax increase ... now is not the time to be debating unrelated measures like an oil pipeline."

"If the House sends us their bill with Keystone in it," Reid added, "they are just wasting valuable time because it will not pass the Senate."

In addition to extending Social Security payroll tax relief for workers and unemployment insurance benefits, the House GOP proposal would give the State Department a 60-day window to sign off on the $7 billion Keystone XL project or require Obama to justify to Congress in writing why he does not believe the Canada-to-U.S. pipeline would serve American interests.

Environmentalists oppose the XL line due to the increased greenhouse gas emissions generated by the Canadian oil-sands crude it would carry, and Democratic leaders have proven receptive to their position by endorsing the Obama administration's decision to prolong review of the project until 2013.

"I think everyone is scratching their heads trying to understand how oil companies' pipe dreams have cut ahead of the needs of taxpayers," National Wildlife Federation President Larry Schweiger said in a statement today on the new House GOP proposal. "Harry Reid is absolutely right to stand up to the House Republicans' alliance with Big Oil and focus on the needs of American families."

But industry groups from the American Petroleum Institute (API) to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are joined with several major labor unions in clamoring for the jobs and financial benefits the pipeline would bring. The relaxation of EPA's so-called Boiler MACT rule included in the GOP payroll tax plan is another top priority for business interests.

"President Obama said lawmakers should not load the pay roll tax bill with a 'bunch of politics,' but it's hard not to see 'politics' in delaying the decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the next year's election," the oil and gas industry group said in a statement. "The 20,000 skilled American workers who will build the pipeline can't wait."

The political pressure over the House payroll tax bill grew so great today that one Democrat who voted against previous Republican bids to expedite Keystone XL and delay the EPA boiler rule was forced to walk back an hours-old statement that he would reluctantly support the new package.

"If I had one minute to vote, I probably would vote to accept the deal," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said this morning in an MSNBC interview circulated by Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office. "But it's not good government."

Cleaver's office later released a clarification from the Congressional Black Caucus chairman: "It is important that I make myself clear. I do not support the GOP payroll tax package."

The House GOP payroll tax plan also includes a pay freeze for federal workers through fiscal 2013. Its Keystone XL language does not shift jurisdiction over a permit for the pipeline from State to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) formally proposed in separate legislation offered last week (E&E Daily, Dec. 1).

Click here to read a copy of the House GOP's new legislation.