Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts called on President Barack Obama to give his immediate stamp of approval to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a $7 billion project to carry oil from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

Pitts, speaking in Lancaster County Saturday, said construction of the 1,700-mile pipeline would create tens of thousands of jobs and bolster the American economy now, while reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil in the future.

"Canada would like to build this pipeline from their oil sands. They have a vast amount — more oil than all the oil in Saudi Arabia," said Pitts, who represents the county in the U.S. House. "The president is saying, 'Well, I want to wait until next year, after this election.'

"His environmental friends don't want him to do this. So he's wanting to postpone it."

Obama must decide by Feb. 21 whether the pipeline is in the national interest, a deadline imposed in the payroll tax cut law signed by the president late last year.

Congressional Republicans have sharply criticized Obama's delay on the pipeline, questioning whether he is really interested in boosting the economy. They warn of the risk of losing both the jobs and the oil to overseas competitors.

Pitts, speaking to some 90 conservatives at a restaurant near Manheim Saturday morning, added his voice to those calling on the president to approve the pipeline.

"I think that energy, and adequate energy, is a matter of national security," Pitts said. "We're too dependent on foreign sources of oil who want to kill us. Why not take oil from a friendly nation?"

Pitts delivered his remarks at a quarterly breakfast of Lancaster County ACTION — Americans for Christian Traditions In Our Nation. The group of religious conservatives was founded here in 1987 around Pat Robertson's presidential campaign.

In an interview afterward, Pitts said he believed environmental concerns over the project have been overstated.

The U.S. State Department delayed a decision on granting a permit in November, largely because of worries about the pipeline's environmental impact, especially in the Nebraska Sandhills, a region of porous hills that includes a high concentration of wetlands and a key aquifer.

Pitts said there are hundreds of crossings over the aquifer that are safe.

"I think, in looking at it, the State Department decided that this was the move environmentally safe place to put the pipeline, so I'm willing to go along with it," Pitts said.

The Keystone XL pipeline would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Pitts said the project would create 20,000 jobs immediately and 100,000 more in ancillary work on pipeline servicing and at refineries.

"It makes us less dependent on foreign sources of oil," Pitts said. "Canada is a friendly country, and why ship it to China? There are jobs that are going to be created, either here or in China."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the pipeline company TransCanada could pursue an alternative route through Canada to the West Coast, where oil could be shipped to China and other Asian markets.

Pitts used the pipeline as an example of what he called Obama's poor record on jobs and regulation over the past three years. "The government doesn't create jobs. The government creates an atmosphere in which job creation can be created by the private sector," Pitts said. "The answer is not more government spending, borrowing and taxing. It's unleashing the private sector."

He said approving the pipeline would be a "good way to increase employment."

Pitts, shifting to presidential politics, said that Obama will come close to — if not surpass — the billion-dollar fundraising mark for his 2012 re-election campaign.

"It will take a strong person to withstand the coming attack," Pitts said. "Our nominee will be called heartless, cruel and hateful. They'll face a relentless attack machine that will go after them and their family.

"It will be quite a battle, but it must be won."

Asked in an interview afterward which of the Republican presidential hopefuls stand the best chance of defeating Obama in November, Pitts named two: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He seemed to favor the latter.

"I know some of these people. [Former U.S. Sen. Rick] Santorum's a good friend. Newt's a good friend. Ron Paul's a friend. I haven't weighed in, but I tend to think that Romney or Gingrich would probably have the best opportunity," Pitts said.

"Gingrich is an attack dog. I mean, he would debate Obama. He would be able to respond and counter anything that Obama says immediately," Pitts continued. "He knows more about what's wrong in Washington and how to correct it than anybody. I don't know if he will be able to get back up in the polls or not. Romney seems to be the one."

Pitts said that if Gingrich were to be elected president, "From day one he would know what to do, how to get there. I think the economy would start picking up immediately. I think there would be a confidence factor."

He added that Romney, a successful businessman, would be able to turn the economy around, too.

"That's the most critical issue," Pitts said.

tmurse@lnpnews.com