Republicans and business leaders are urging President Obama to turn talk of creating jobs into action by green-lighting a long-delayed $7 billion expansion of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that supporters say will create 20,000 jobs.

The proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver Canadian crude from the oil sands of Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries, can’t go forward without the president’s approval through the State Department’s permitting process, where it has been stuck for three years in part because of environmental concerns.

“The fact is that pipelines leak,” said Harlan Hentges, executive director at the Center for Energy Matters. “If you got one, it’s going to leak. The only question is when”...