Energy group parries call for Lugar to ditch them

The Alliance to Save Energy is striking back at an Indiana GOP Senate hopeful’s call for incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) to cut ties with the group.

On Thursday Lugar’s Tea Party-backed primary foe, Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, said Lugar should resign from the Alliance’s board because the group has supported cap-and-trade legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Turns out the nonprofit energy-efficiency group’s president, Kateri Callahan, is from Indiana herself, and didn’t take kindly to Mourdock’s claim that Lugar is “out of touch with Hoosier conservatives.”

“As a Hoosier myself and the leader of the Alliance to Save Energy, we strongly believe that energy efficiency reflects values embraced by all of the good citizens of Indiana,” she said in a statement.

Callahan’s statement doesn’t address efficiency’s role in combating climate change specifically, instead pointing to other values of energy conservation. “Hoosiers value thriftiness, helping one’s neighbor, building strong communities and economies, self-reliance and patriotism. Energy efficiency embodies all those ideals,” she said.

Callahan noted that the group was founded 35 years ago by a bipartisan pair of Midwestern senators, the late GOP Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois and the late Hubert Humphrey, a Democrat from Minnesota.

The group’s board has Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate.