WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday, The Guardian and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
Stephen Edwell, the independent chair of WA's energy transformation taskforce, has just a few years to stop a solar surge overwhelming the South West power grid.
WA is the only state in Australia with rising emissions on the back of new LNG projects that will make meeting Paris Agreement emissions reductions very dificult.
Chevron is preparing to shed about 400 employees from its WA business, just months after approving a new construction project and backing an LNG jobs initiative.
Two of the biggest players in WA’s gas-propelled economy, Woodside Petroleum and Alcoa, are starting to look to renewables to slash their gas use as doubts rise about how big a role the fossil fuel will play in the transition to clean energy.
In 2007 WA lost 30% of its gas supply, and Apache Energy workers were lucky not to lose their lives, after a corroded gas pipeline failed and produced a gigantic explosion.
Chevron has paid the Australian Taxation Office $US654 million ($866 million) under a partial settlement of its dispute with the tax office over intercompany loans and slashed the interest rate it charged its Australian subsidiary.
WA’s charge into the battery minerals industry is gathering pace, with Kidman Resources and Chilean lithium giant SQM looking to build Kwinana’s second lithium refinery.
Inpex’s Ichthys LNG project will cost $53 billion, $8 billion more than planned, and may not see substantial production until early next year in a blow to the Japanese operator that is waiting on the Darwin plant to more than double its cashflow.
