A brief commercial announcement

It’s really hard to be a progressive and shop your values. Many of the biggest corporations we buy things from support conservative Republicans and radical causes. Credo Mobile is one example of a business that puts its customers’ money to use supporting progressive organizations, but there aren’t too many good other examples.

So I’m glad to see Ethical Electric. It’s a progressive renewable energy supplier that makes it easy for people to power their homes with wind and solar energy, without having to do any sort of installation. Unlike dirty utility companies – who are big funders of the Tea Party and conservative Republican candidates – Ethical Electric is investing in progressive causes. Here’s their mission statement:

Ethical Electric is an energy company that does good.

We power as many American homes and businesses as possible with 100% clean energy from renewable sources like wind and solar.

We use profits to fund causes that benefit our planet and advance equality, peace, justice and opportunity.

We believe that there are people who agree with our vision for a better world and want to join a company that shares these values. Because we have faith in that movement, we have pledged our time, our reputations and our financial means to building this new enterprise.

Our customers are members of Ethical Electric. Enrolling in our clean energy service is a choice, not a purchase.

As a progressive company, Ethical Electric is part of a broader movement of people who care about the future. So we help our members make their voices heard on important issues facing our country and the planet through advocacy.

Ethical Electric was created by progressives, for progressives. Founder Tom Matzzie was a longtime MoveOn.org and labor activist. He helped lead campaigns to end the war in Iraq and worked hard to defeat Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Connecticut Senate race. And his progressive credentials are already showing, as they’ve partnered with groups like SumOfUs.org, Daily Kos, and Demand Progress.

And like CREDO, Ethical Electric has their own online campaigning platform for their members: Ethical.org. The project isn’t just focused on energy and environmental issues, but has campaigns up speaking out against cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, opposing war with North Korea, and demanding Congress pass a law requiring background checks on all gun sales.

Matzzie explains why progressives should switch:

1. We are an explicitly progressive company. Not just green, progressive! We share a portion of all revenues with progressive causes. The vision here is to create a progressive funding juggernaut. It will take years to get there but that is the vision. As you know, there are few independent sources of progressive funding.

2. We only sell 100% clean energy from local sources. A 50% green product in the Mid-Atlantic is roughly 25% coal power. We won’t sell that. Other companies are willing to do that. We aren’t.

3. Also, all of our partner wind farms are within a 200-mile drive of a customer’s home. Our current partner is a wind farm in Pennsylvania built with union labor on a reclaimed mine. No Texas wind RECs when you live in DC, MD, PA or NJ. The idea is to build new wind power, not just line the pockets of T Boone Pickens.

He notes, “You can find green power from other companies, but somewhere behind them is a dirty energy company.” (That’s certainly true. Look at Green Mountain Energy, which is not so green after all.)

Ethical Electric is currently available in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, but will be in New York, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire later this year.

And even better, Ethical Electric will give me $50 for every Suburban Guerrilla reader who enrolls through this link …and to sweeten the deal, if you sign up through that link, you get a $50 enrollment bonus, too.

Via Thomas Soldan.