Environmentalist protesters have been arrested outside the White House on the first day of a planned two-week protest over a proposed oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

U.S. Park Police spokesman David Schlosser tells WJLA-TV (http://wj.la/qNGfzE ) that 65 people were arrested Saturday. The protest is scheduled to run through Sept. 3.

The protesters want President Barack Obama to deny a permit for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline. It would go through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas.

Gus Speth, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and one of the protesters tells the Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/qC3ZFp ) the pipeline would continue the nation's reliance on fossil fuels.

TransCanada says its pipeline would provide jobs and needed oil.