The pro-coal Monash Forum has released a “fact sheet” on the use of coal-fired power stations worldwide, as some in the Coalition party room begin to question Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee.

The document reveals some 467 new coal-fired power stations are under construction in 35 nations across the world, with a further 903 stations being planned in 50 countries.

For Craig Kelly, this reiterates how our nation’s approach to energy “defies logic.”

“We often hear from the anti-coalers and those green eco-zealots that don’t like coal. They always tell us that coal is on the way out and nobody would build a coal-fired power station today,” the Liberal backbencher tells Luke Grant.

“But when you look at the evidence from around the world, there is something like 50 countries that have worked out the best way they can deliver low-cost energy to their people is through coal.”

The “great irony” that these international coal-fired power stations are using imported Australian coal to facilitate this cheap energy, is a fact not lost on Kelly.

“They will pay a premium to import coal from Australia, when we’ve got that coal in our own backyard. It defies logic, that we’ve got these people set on no coal-fired power in Australia, when you’ve got close to 1,000 coal-fired power stations under construction and in development around the world.”

When pressed on whether he would cross the floor on the National Energy Guarantee, Kelly said contemplating the prospect was “ getting a bit ahead of ourselves.”

“That’s a privilege and a right that we have in the Coalition. But it’s exercised in extreme and very rare circumstances. At the moment, the details of the National Energy Guarantee are still not nailed down.”

Click PLAY below for the full interview