AAP quoted Mr John Brumby Premier of Victoria as saying that he sees no reason why Victoria should not be able to export brown coal to India. He added that the state government is considering a proposal from energy company Exergen to export 12 million tonnes of brown coal to India annually.

Mr Brumby said that the proposal was in its very early days. Export controls were a commonwealth responsibility but there is no reason why brown coal should be considered differently to other energy exports.

He added that "Australia exports oil, Australia exports gas, Australia exports black coal and Australia exports uranium. So why you would single out brown coal and say you can't export that, I think there would be an inconsistency there."

(Sourced from AAP)