Environmental activists marched to the State Department Monday morning ready to risk arrest to protest the Keystone XL pipeline.
Around 200 demonstrators, according to organizers, marched to the agency currently in charge of approving or denying construction of the controversial oil pipeline.
The pipeline, which would stretch across eight states from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, has been in the crosshairs of the environmental movement for several years now. Activists have staged numerous sit-ins at the White House gates, and thousands have been arrested.
Sitting in front of the State Department Monday, 60 activists said they were prepared to be arrested before leaving of their own volition.
Local police and Homeland Security agents blocked the entrance to the State Department but declined to arrest protesters. After spending two hours in the withering summer heat, the crowd marched to a nearby park to drink water in the shade.
"[The police] probably thought we’d just go home, but we stuck it out for quite a while," activist Ron Meseservey, 70, said.
Meseservey said he is a veteran protester, but he had never faced the prospect of arrest before. "I was feeling good that I was out there putting my body on the line," he said.
Many of the protesters who had trained and prepared to be arrested said they were disappointed by the lack of action.
Kathy Bartolomeo had recently retired, and Monday was her first protest.
"It was a little disappointing," Bartolomeo, 62, said of her lack of handcuffs. "It would have gotten more media attention I guess."
Three groups—CREDO, Rainforest Action Network and The Other 98%—organized the protest.
With Congress in August recess, and the State Department still reviewing the long-delayed project, activists are working to keep the pressure up.
Environmentalists say the pipeline would be "game over" for climate change, while supporters of the project say it would create tens of thousands of jobs and increase the country’s energy independence.
CREDO senior campaign manager Elijah Zarlin told the crowd there would be similar protests in Houston in September and Boston in October. Meanwhile, environmental organizations recently conducted six weeks of training for activists in 25 cities, Zarlin said.
Activists especially hoped to put pressure on President Barack Obama. Protesters held banners with the Obama’s recent comments on climate change during the march.
"A lot of us worked on his campaign, including me," Meseservey said. "We did it because we believed he was going to do the right thing, and we expect him to do the right thing."