Daryl Hannah's environmental convictions have once again landed her in trouble with the law -- which is exactly the news-making scenario she's come to embrace for topics particularly close to her heart. 

 

The 50-year-old actress was arrested during a protest outside the White House urging President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would run from Canada to the Gulf Coast. She is one of over 500 people who have been taken into police custody since the protests started on August 20th. 

 

“We cannot risk these precious resources and we cannot shackle ourselves to this type of destructive energy future when we have solutions available to us," Hannah earlier told ABC News. "We have American-made, American-grown, clean safe energy.”

 

Last Friday, the U.S. State Department gave a green light to the creation of the $7 billion 1,700 mile pipeline, stressing that it would have "minimal environmental impact". Hannah, along with Greenpeace director Philip Radford, dismissed those findings; saying in an article on the Huffington Post that the negative effects of this project will be far-reaching. 

 

"If approved, the pipeline construction would allow greater exploitation of the environmentally destructive tar sands, ripping up some of the world's last, most intact rainforests and wildlife habitat that has taken 10,000 years to evolve," they wrote. "The pipeline also threatens communities along its route with toxic oil spills. And by opening a new source of highly polluting tar sands, it could cause even more global warming, as James Hansen and 19 other prominent climate scientists have warned. This is why Keystone XL is opposed by Nebraskan ranchers, communities near the dangerous refineries in Texas, the nation's largest environmental organizations, and so many more."

 

Hannah's arrests for civil disobedience stretch back to 2006, when she famously chained herself to a walnut tree at the now-destroyed South Central Farm. In 2009, she was one of 31 people arrested while protesting mountaintop removal for coal in southern West Virginia.

 

Today's protests, organized by Tar Sands Action, are expected to conclude on September 3rd. Obama is expected to make a final decision on the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline by November 1st. 

 

You can check out video of Hannah preparing to be arrested (by apparently writing her lawyer's number on her arm) below.