Alcoa chief executive Bill Oplinger told Wall Street the US aluminium specialist could take strong action to boost profits from alumina, most of which it refines in Western Australia.
South West WA's power grid reached a record 91 per cent peak renewable energy share in December - driven by 1,225 MW of new battery storage - while wholesale power prices fell 13 per cent and carbon emissions dropped 15 per cent as coal and gas generation declined.
The green light for Black Mountain Energy comes just months after Federal experts said its environmental risk assessment was "limited and disjointed" and reached "largely unsupported" conclusions.
Casual workers taken off Ichthys offshore facilities by Inpex will be paid at least until next week under a standby deal similar to workers from the troubled Prelude LNG vessel.
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.
