(CNN) -- Courtney Hight told herself not to cry as police handcuffed her outside the White House. "I knew I was doing the right thing," she said. "So I did not cry." On a cloudy day last month Hight, a former member of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, took a huge career risk and joined more than 1,200 protesters who were demanding that President Obama deny a building permit for Keystone XL, a planned oil pipeline that would stretch from Alberta, Canada, to Texas. The project, the protesters say, threatens to poison ground water across the heartland and extend America's reliance on climate-changing fossil fuels.
@highlight
Green advocates worry Obama softening on environment
@highlight
Environmentalists call on Obama to stop oil pipeline
@highlight
White House defends its record on "clean energy economy"
@highlight
Arrested ex-White House adviser: Obama "made a promise"
"I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that ... this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal," @placeholder said during the speech.