This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Beth Brunton’s magenta umbrella shields her from the weather on an April afternoon in Seattle. It’s a curious sight, because today is the first day in months without a drop of rain. It’s 75 degrees, and there’s not a cloud in the sky.

“It gets their attention,” she says about her umbrella, as a diverse array of bare-armed people wearing sunglasses pass by on the brick-red campus of Seattle Central College. Brunton stops a young black woman.

“Have you signed to put clean energy on the ballot?” Brunton asks.

The woman stops to listen to the pitch, then shakes her head: No, she can’t sign, because she’s not registered to vote. A lot of people Brunton approaches aren’t—too young, no home address, just a tourist passing through. One man had a felony conviction and hadn’t yet registered to vote again.

Brunton got 40 signatures in the two hours she spent hunting down voters on a street corner at the edge of campus. It’s a sliver of the 260,000 that the initiative, also known as the “Protect Washington Act,” needs in order to appear on the ballot this November. If it passes, Initiative 1631 would become the first fee on carbon in the country—and the first law adopted by a state that looks anything like a carbon tax.

Beth Brunton poses with a friend at Seattle Central College. Kate Yoder/Grist

Just two years ago, Washingtonians rejected a “carbon tax” initiative, which would have initially charged businesses $25 per metric ton of emissions before ramping up over time. The debate over I-732 drove a rift between progressives. While it found some high-profile supporters, from Leonardo DiCaprio to the state’s Audubon Society, it was criticized by activist author Naomi Klein, the Washington Sierra Club chapter, and the Seattle Times editorial board.

This time around, the coalition behind the Protect Washington Act is taking a different tack, rebranding the effort to put a price on carbon and bringing the climate conversation to the streets in hopes of generating broad support. The initiative proposes a “fee on pollution” that would put a $15 charge on each metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted in Washington starting in 2020. That charge would rise by $2 plus inflation every year until the state meets its climate goals, which include cutting its carbon footprint 36 percent below 2005 levels by 2035. The revenue raised would go toward investing in clean energy; protecting the air, water, and forests; and helping vulnerable communities prepare for wildfires and sea-level rise.