Start-up Led by Former MoveOn.org Washington Director Seeks Retail Supplier License

Ethical Electric Benefit Co. d/b/a Ethical Electric applied for a Pennsylvania electric supplier license to serve residential and all sizes of commercial customers in all service areas.

Ethical Electric is also planning to launch in New Jersey as an initial market.

The start-up, whose launch was announced in the spring, is led by Tom Matzzie, founder and CEO, who was formerly Washington Director for MoveOn.org.

Ethical Electric's website also lists the following individuals as advisors to the company: Jigar Shah, former CEO of The Carbon War Room and founder and former CEO of SunEdison; Quayle Hodek, founder and CEO of Renewable Choice Energy; and Zack Exley, Chief Community Office for the Wikimedia Foundation and former MoveOn.org Organizing Director.

Describing itself as the "progressive" choice, Ethical Electric's website states it will offer customers products supporting 100% renewable energy from local clean sources. "That means wind farms or solar farms within a few hours drive of your home," the site states.

Additionally, Ethical Electric's website states, "a portion of our revenue goes to causes you care about," and that, "You get to vote on which causes we'll support."

Furthermore, Ethical Electric's website states that: "We're working to shut down coal-fired power plants. We oppose fracking. Is your current energy supplier saying that?"

Matzzie's bio on Ethical Electric's website states that, "[f]or more than a dozen years Tom built big online communities for social impact causes that disrupted incumbents in the space. His work developed innovations that today are best practices -- pioneering online civic engagement."

This experience building online audiences will be applied to the Ethical Electric customer acquisition program.

Matzzie has raised more than $150 million online from millions of cause-related donors in $5 and $10 chunks, the bio states.