Malcolm Turnbull facing a backbench backlash on Alan Finkel's Clean Energy Target

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In a special energy edition of Q&A on Monday night, Mr Frydenberg disagreed with the former prime minister's suggestion on Monday that the clean energy target was "effectively a tax on coal".

Coalition MPs will hold their first discussion of the Chief Scientist's keenly anticipated recommendations when Parliament returns for the final fortnight before the long winter break.

"I would have thought party room was one of the more important meetings", that MP said.

Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who helped lead the campaign against Labor's carbon tax, said that business as usual wasn't working and Australia needed to abide by its worldwide obligations, which are to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent against 2005 levels by 2030.

'So we need to maintain an investment climate that can continues to attract big investment'. "Business as usual is not an option for us because we are dealing with a less stable, higher-priced system".

However, a CET would deliver slightly cheaper prices than EIS. Do you think power is too expensive?

"Our recommendation is an incentive for new generation, it's not a specific prohibition on coal and it's not right for people to interpret that way", he said.

Frydenberg said it was "totally conceivable" there could be new coal-fired power stations or existing ones retrofitted with the newest technology if energy companies saw fit. And he has said even older generators might also be eligible for the subsidy if retro-fitted with carbon capture and storage technology.

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"For the short to medium-term the NEM (national electricity market) is likely to require higher levels of flexible, gas-fired generation to support (wind and solar)", the report said.

He has recommended a clean energy target to mandate a proportion of electricity each year be generated from sources below a set emissions level.

If clean coal were to be given the same treatment as renewable energy, it could not be done under the CET.

While Tony Abbott has warned against anything that would become a carbon tax equivalent by shifting costs to consumers, observers within the government and opposition are hopeful of ending the climate policy war that has led to political crises and a lost decade of investment in electricity generation.

A clearly irritated Mr Joyce said "Mr Abbott is entitled to his opinion".

The report features a clean energy target which would incentivise low emissions bringing reliable energy into the market, Dr Finkel says.

The energy sector and the experts believe even if coal is included in the scheme, there is no interest in building a coal fired power station, if only because they are more expensive then renewable energy.

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