Calling for a “pragmatic, positive” solution, the new chairman of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) said the organization needs to help redirect the current fuels debate, between environmentalists on one side and coal and nuclear energy supporters on the other.

Part of the process should be promoting “the multi-faceted benefits of natural gas throughout our economy, including its compatibility with renewable sources of energy,” said INGAA Chairman Jeff Bruner, who also is president of Iroquois Pipeline.

“At one extreme are those who would say ‘no’ to any proposed energy solution if the answer is not renewable energy — the so-called ‘keep it in the ground’ movement,” he said. “At the other end are those who promote government intervention to save fuels and technologies that are in decline due to the invisible hand of the market and technological innovation,” referring to the recent Department of Energy (DOE) notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) favoring coal and nuclear power.

The Iroquois chairman made the remarks during a press briefing Wednesday where he was introduced as INGAA’s incoming chair.

“We must do our part to steer this national energy dialogue back in a pragmatic, positive direction in which we both continue our progress toward a cleaner energy economy and utilize the domestic energy abundance that offers so much promise for American consumers and our economy,” he said.

In comments already filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, INGAA has called DOE’s NOPR to implement reforms on the reliability and resiliency of the electricity grid “fatally flawed.” If adopted, the proposal would “imperil the benefits of innovation and efficiency spurred by competition…The proposal provides no basis for the Commission to alter its market-based rate regime fundamentally by turning back the clock on competition.”