The government's long-delayed energy white paper says Australia will continue to be one of the world's biggest fossil fuel exporters - with coal production growing by 8 per cent a year and gas by a massive 19 per cent a year.

It predicts a possible shuffling of global rankings - with the white paper suggesting Australia could rival Qatar as the world's biggest gas exporter and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson suggesting Indonesia could overtake Australia as the biggest exporter of thermal coal.

And it calls on state and federal governments to put in place regulations to overcome environmental and local objections to the coal seam gas industry so that coal seam gas reserves can be fully exploited.

But the white paper says at home Australia will shift away from fossil fuels. At present, 75 per cent of electricity is generated using coal, but by 2030 solar, wind and geothermal could provide 40 per cent of our power, rising to 50 per cent by 2050.

It says carbon capture and storage would ''begin to make an important contribution by 2035'', and could boost the total ''clean energy'' generation in 2050 to 80 per cent of total supply.

Greens leader Senator Christine Milne said it was a ''tragedy'' the white paper presented ''a completely two-faced view of the future in energy promotion of fossil fuels, rush for gas, at the same time talking about a clean energy future. It doesn't add up.''

But Australian Coal Association chief executive Dr Nikki Williams said the strategy made perfect sense. ''We are pleased that it recognises Australia's position as a global energy supplier. Australia's coal is lifting people out of poverty and is an essential input to the nation-building infrastructure in developing economies,'' she said.

Mr Ferguson called on state governments to accept a package of reforms - including price deregulation, time-of-use pricing and measures to reduce the big peaks in demand - to reduce the need for costly infrastructure investment that drives up bills.

He will take the reforms to a ministerial meeting in a fortnight and the Prime Minister wants to finalise them at a COAG meeting with state premiers in December.

Coalition resources spokesman Ian MacFarlane said the reforms followed what he had begun during the Howard years: ''Of course we support them … but this should have happened five years ago … rather than deal with Labor state governments, they've done nothing until now.''

But New South Wales and Queensland, the two big states in the national energy market that have not yet fully deregulated energy markets, said they would proceed cautiously.

NSW Energy Minister Chris Hartcher said NSW was ''on track'' to deliver some price deregulation, but was wary of the cost of smart meters and the need for consumers to understand the market changes.

Victoria, which has led the nation in price deregulation, said the federal government needed to make sure the Australian Energy Regulator had the power and independence to do its job properly.