The company behind the politically incendiary Keystone XL oil pipeline released new data today aimed at bolstering its job-creation estimates, which have drawn fire from environmentalists who charge the Alberta-based company with embellishing the economic upside of the $7 billion project.

In its new jobs rundown, TransCanada Corp. points to 20,000 positions it says would result from White House approval of the 1,700-mile Canada-to-U.S. pipeline, which would nearly double U.S. import capacity for emissions-heavy oil-sands crude from Alberta. Democrats and green groups hoping to bring down the XL line, citing the ecological and safety risks posed by speedy oil-sands development, have lambasted TransCanada and its GOP backers as eager to overpromote jobs created by the project that would, in many cases, prove temporary.

"These are new, real U.S. jobs," TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said in a statement on its projection of 500 workers needed for each of the pipeline's 17 spreads, along with 100 workers for each of its 30 pump stations and 1,000 more workers needed for construction oversight, among other positions linked to Keystone XL.

TransCanada billed the construction-related jobs created by approval of the pipeline at 13,000, adding 7,000 to the total as a result of raw-materials manufacturing contracts with more than 50 companies in a dozen-plus U.S. states.

But the company did not assert that a certain percentage of those jobs would be permanent, putting its latest projections largely in line with previous statements that the 13,000 construction jobs would be "one person, one year" during the peak period of building the 36-inch pipeline.

In its most recent environmental review of the pipeline, the State Department reached a similar conclusion in predicting that between 5,000 and 6,000 "person-year" posts would be created by the XL line.

"In the long-term, a small number of people would be needed to maintain the line in each state," State assessors wrote in August. "Unemployment rates in the proposed Project study area would probably not be affected in the long-term, although there could be a short-term lowering of unemployment during construction in the more rural areas."

TransCanada's new jobs push comes as Republicans, both on Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trail, continue to press President Obama for a favorable ruling on the XL link by Feb. 21 -- a deadline set in a payroll tax-cut deal inked weeks ago (Greenwire, Dec. 23, 2011). Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), whose legislation forcing the Obama administration to decide on the pipeline within two months was added to the payroll tax legislation, epitomized the push from his party in a letter to President Obama released today.

"Even if in the future we do not consume all the Canadian oil imported, having that crude in the U.S. system would give us tremendous flexibility to deal with supply shortages caused by conflict, political manipulation, terrorism, or natural disaster," Lugar wrote in the letter, dated Jan. 6. "We have the opportunity now to lay the foundation for a future in which our oil import needs are satisfied by friendly Western Hemisphere neighbors."

Environmentalists and anti-pipeline Democrats point to White House signals that the Feb. 21 deadline set by Lugar's plan would force them to reject the pipeline out of concern that it would be unable to fully review the details of a still-pending new route in Nebraska. The State Department, however, has yet to state definitively how it would reconcile the Nebraska deal with the terms of the new payroll tax law.

"We are using our 60 days and we are analyzing the Keystone provisions, and we will make an appropriate decision consistent with relevant law," State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters last week.

Click here to read Lugar's letter to Obama.