The commentary made by Jones [1], while raising some important points about CO2 adsorption induced coal matrix swelling, is irrelevant to the methodology used in Jasinge et al. [2] article [D. Jasinge, PG. Ranjith, Xavier Choi, J. Fernando [2012, Energy, 39, 303-309]] and this rebuttal is Jasinge et al.'s [2] response to Jones's [1] criticism. Jasinge et al. [2] paper presents a series of experimental work conducted on natural and reconstituted Victorian brown coal samples to identify the effect of coal matrix swelling on its permeability. In order to overcome the issue of coal's heterogeneity, a different approach has been used. The comments made by Jones [1] are not valid for this approach. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.