Media cameras and reporters outnumbered participants during the protest — a far cry from the 2011 protests.

“It feels odd to be back,” said Bill McKibben of the climate activist group 350.org, who had organized the earlier sit-ins. “Eighteen months ago, no one knew about the Keystone XL pipeline. I spent all of my time just explaining what it was. The other day, Daniel Yergin, the noted energy historian, said this was the most famous pipeline in history, and it hasn’t even been built yet. So in that way, we did our job if nothing else.”

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For all the raised awareness about Keystone, President Barack Obama has stayed mum on the pipeline proposal, which is being reviewed by the State Department. Secretary of State John Kerry — known as a climate hawk during his years in the Senate — has refused to tip his hand since taking the helm at State, vowing only to follow the review process put in place under his predecessor, Hillary Clinton.

Obama didn’t mention the pipeline during his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, but he spoke extensively about the responsibility to do more to combat global warming.

The tough talk seemed to warm some hearts and puzzle others at the rally.

“Nobody talked about climate change in the campaign, so it was good to hear him say it,” said Bond, the NAACP’s chairman emeritus. “But now we want to see some action. We want to see him do something about the things he talked about so eloquently.”

Bond said the NAACP got involved because climate change isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s also a racial and human rights issue because minority communities are “mostly the victims of bad environmental policies.”

The protest is Bond’s fifth arrest in connection with civil rights, he said.

Hannah participated in the first White House Keystone arrests in 2011 and has also been arrested in Texas for protesting the pipeline.

“Unfortunately, because we haven’t responded to the crisis with the type of attention and action that we should have, we’re here again,” she said.

Protesters wearing “No KXL” buttons chanted, “Hey, Obama, we don’t want no climate drama” and “Barack Obama, yes you can stop the dirty pipeline plan” as they watched the other activists being arrested. Obama couldn’t hear the chants — he was in North Carolina visiting a factory.

Activists have kicked their efforts into high gear this week. On Monday, climate activists read and delivered an open letter and two petitions signed by roughly 280,000 people urging Obama to lay out a plan to tackle climate change. Many of the activists will return to Washington to participate in Sunday’s Presidents Day weekend rally to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Activists from the Sierra Club, 350.org and the Hip Hop Caucus, among others, will march from the Washington Monument to the White House. That rally is projected to bring 30,000 people to the area, organizers have said.

Darius Dixon contributed to this report.