Victoria’s brown coal reserves look set to be opened up to export on a mass scale — prompting claims the state is putting commercial opportunity ahead of its responsibility to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Confidential cabinet documents obtained by The Age show the Brumby Government is considering offering billions of tonnes of Latrobe Valley coal for competitive tender next year.

Open-cut coal mining in the Latrobe Valley: millions of tonnes of brown coal could be exported a year. Credit:Justin McManus

The tender process would be preceded by a green light for a $1.5billion scheme by the company Exergen to mine, dry and export 12 million tonnes of brown coal a year to be burned in Indian power stations.

Exergen wants to build a 150-kilometre underground pipe to carry the dried coal from the Latrobe Valley to an expanded port at Hastings on Western Port.