Photo

The United States Park Police on Sunday afternoon arrested hundreds of demonstrators participating in an act of civil disobedience in front of the White House to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Park Police said 372 people were arrested at the demonstration in Lafayette Park. Mostly college students, they were trying to dissuade the Obama administration from approving the 1,700-mile crude oil pipeline from Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast.

“Hey, Obama, we don’t want no climate drama,” the protesters chanted, as they attached their hands to the fence in front of the White House with plastic zip ties. Others lay down on a plastic tarp representing a “human oil spill,” some wearing plastic suits decorated as skeletons and one woman in a Captain Planet costume.

Ahead of the midterm elections this year, protest organizers noted that young voters have been a key part of the coalition that elected President Obama.

The proposed pipeline “signifies a long-term commitment to using fossil fuels,” said Taylor Woodard, 22, wearing a garland of fir branches on her head. Ms. Woodard traveled to Washington from Clemson University in South Carolina, where she is a junior majoring in philosophy, and expected to be arrested by the end of the afternoon.

The Keystone XL pipeline has become a touchstone for the environmental movement, and civil disobedience has been a key tactic: 1,200 were arrested at the White House over two weeks in the fall of 2011, and smaller-scale actions have taken place around the country. More than 86,000 people signed a “Pledge of Resistance” promising to engage in civil disobedience if a State Department report, called the National Interest Determination and expected in the coming months, points toward approval.

On Sunday, before marching to the White House, the protesters unfurled a banner in the street in front of Secretary of State John Kerry’s house in Washington. But Mr. Kerry, who appeared on three morning news shows to discuss the situation in Ukraine, was probably not home.

A State Department contractor studying the pipeline’s potential environmental impact was cleared of charges of conflict of interest by an inspector general last week.