Bay Area environmentalists remain hopeful. Wednesday’s protests followed a Monday vigil outside the State Department’s San Francisco office. Deirdre Smith, one of the organizers of the protest, thinks that the pipeline will be a referendum in the fight for clean energy.

“I think the Keystone is the symbol of a larger fight. I will put my body on the line to shift the paradigm that we need fossil fuels to exist.”

A recent survey shows protesters have an uphill climb in successfully pushing their cause. Fifty-seven percent of Americans still favor the project, according to a USA Today poll released last week. On the other hand, Smith hopes that the demonstrators will inspire some of the 77,045 activists who have signed Credo Action’s Pledge of Resistance to join in civil disobedience efforts to stop Keystone.

“We hope that the people who want to fight this pipeline but aren’t quite sure what they can do will go to their local federal buildings and block entrances.”

Locally, environmentalists fear that several energy facilities in the Bay Area, including the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, Valero’s Benicia refinery, and the planned WestPac shipping facility in Pittsburg, could be destinations for tar sands oil when their rail facilities come online.

The State Department will continue to take public comments on the report through March 7. President Obama has 90 days to decide whether to approve the project.

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Activists Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline Arrested in San Francisco