Keystone XL pipeline becomes a political headache for White House

“There’s a whole suite of things I’m distressed by, but the tar sands is the make-or-break issue,” said Heyerdahl, who lives in Shelburne, Vt.

Jabe Blumenthal, who co-chairs the board of the Seattle-based group Climate Solutions and gave the maximum personal contribution to Obama in the last election, just turned down an invitation to a high-dollar event in Seattle. He added that Obama’s fundraisers told him they think the White House is starting to focus on the Keystone decision, but they remain confident environmentalists will ultimately back the president over any Republican rival.

“They may be right. But not when it comes to me,” he said.

On Tuesday, two students from Washington University in St. Louis raised enough money to attend a $250-a-person Obama fundraiser there, during which they unfurled signs written on their clothes and cried out during his remarks, “Please stop the pipeline!” Obama did not directly respond to them, though he commented later in his talk, “We’ve got a couple people here concerned about the environment.”

Hundreds of members of the Laborers’ International Union of North America filled the auditorium at Friday’s hearing; Brent Booker, who directs the union’s construction department, said the project will provide “thousands of jobs” to his members.

“Our members are in dire need of paychecks,” he said in an interview, adding that TransCanada has agreed to provide “middle-class wages” and health insurance for pipeline workers.

Bob Van Der Valk, who lives in Terry, Mont., and works as a petroleum industry analyst, said in contrast to oil shipped in on tankers from overseas, “this pipeline will make money for us.”

“It’s capitalism and it’s good,” he said, to scattered boos.

Shortly afterward, two Nebraska women broke down in tears as they testified. Alaura Luebbe, a rancher’s daughter, sobbed as she spoke of her ranch being threatened by the project, while activist Jane Kleeb declared, “We are the Sand Hills lovers. We are the Ogallala Aquifer lovers. And we are begging you — not asking, we are begging you — to deny this pipeline permit.”

The State Department is in the process of deciding whether the pipeline is in the national interest and has said it will make a final decision on the permit by the end of the year.