Not coal dug out of the ground, nor 'embedded' emissions in international exports.
But last week, a federal court ruling on a case brought by ACF against the environment minister found he did not need to consider the effects of burning the coal dug out of the mine.
In September, the state energy company Kosovo Electric Company (KEK) began a new round of negotiations with several hundred more village inhabitants, who have to be displaced in order to make way for new excavations for coal digging.
The ACF will argue, on appeal to the high court, that emissions from the burning of coal dug up from the mine will exacerbate climate change and harm the Great Barrier Reef.
One argument up Hunt's sleeve might be already indicated in his approval of the mine: that the coal dug up in this mine will not necessarily all be in addition to coal that would otherwise be burned, but would displace other coal.
And each day that the nearby Elk Creek Mine grinds away in an around-the-clock coal digging frenzy -- flush with urgent orders, rising prices and insatiable demand -- the pile grows larger because the coal simply cannot be shipped out fast enough.
So is the state's budget, which depends on taxes on every ton of coal dug out of West Virginia hills.
Think of it this way: the coal dug up in places like Virginia and burned in Ohio, heats the atmosphere, which melts the Himalayan glaciers.
The aim is to end a coal-digging free-for-all that is blamed for a blighted environment and hundreds of deaths every year.
However, it was what happened next that makes this week belong to him: conservative newspapers from The Australian to the Herald Sun shamefully dragged Duncan over the coals, digging up dirt from his past and skewering him on front pages for not paying any net tax, all as punishment for asking a fairly benign question.
