Environment Victoria has welcomed the State Government's decision to postpone a move to allow coal from the Latrobe Valley to be exported to India.
Melbourne company, Exergen, plans to dry brown coal and export it to India for power generation.
Mark Wakeham from Environment Victoria says the Government has put off the deal to avoid a voter backlash at next year's election.
He says there is no guarantee the Government will not make an export coal allocation after the poll.
"Victoria's brown coal is among the most dirty fuels in the world," he said.
"Starting a new export industry would increase the Latrobe Valley's reliance on an outdated and polluting industry and it would likely increase global greenhouse emissions."