Darren Chester ruled out nuclear energy as an alternative to the region's brown coal power industry in the wake of comments by deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop.

Ms Bishop said nuclear energy should be considered if Australia is serious about tackling climate change.

Her comments came as the Federal Coalition met in Canberra last week to formulate a response to the Rudd Government's proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Mr Chester said nuclear power was not on his agenda and the Valley should instead continue to invest in clean coal technologies.

``We have a natural asset in 500 years worth of brown coal,'' Mr Chester said.

``The challenge is to use it in the cleanest way and I believe there is strong support in the power industry to invest in new technology.

``I'm confident we have the capacity to use coal in a more efficient manner in the future.''

Liberal leader Brendan Nelson has urged caution over moving forward with an ETS but Mr Chester said there were still many details the Federal Government was yet to release.

``There is no economic modelling available at the moment which would provide detail on how the scheme is going to operate, how much it is going to cost individual households and its impacts in terms of jobs,'' he said.

``I think there is a broad acceptance that we need to take action in relation to climate change, although there is competing views in the science community but the broad consensus is to give the planet the benefit of the doubt.

``The real concern for me is what it means to the Latrobe Valley in terms of increased costs of living and jobs.''

The Coalition meeting was in response to the release of the Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper last month.

An ETS which would impose a `cap' on businesses producing carbon emissions was included in the scheme.

The Coalition supports an ETS in principle but believes it should commence when ``it is ready in an orderly, methodical and responsible manner'' and by 2012.

Mr Chester said it would be ``economically irresponsible'' to lock into a plan which could threaten Australia's exporting industries and other key employers.

Better designed housing and commercial properties and a range of other initiatives including developing cleaner energy, should be considered by the government, according to Mr Chester.

However he said there was still a long way to go before the ETS was widely accepted by the Coalition.

``At this stage, in terms of the Coalition's position, we are waiting to see the economic modelling and the draft legislation before we can realistically have a firm opinion on what the government is proposing to do,'' Mr Chester said.