Bluewaters has become a symbol of the industry's woes. (ABC News: Hugh Sando)
The state government has pledged its support for a merger between WA's only coal miners as its 2030 deadline to retire state-owned coal assets approaches.
Premier Roger Cook says commercial negotiations will be at arm's length, but a merger is "self-evident".
The state government says it is working with the privately owned coal miners to negotiate the specifics of the merger.
The WA government is pushing for the state's last remaining privately-owned coal mines to merge ahead of its self-imposed 2030 deadline to retire all state-owned coal power stations.
The merger would see Indian owned Griffin Coal and Chinese-owned Premier Coal become one entity, which would supply coal to the private Bluewaters power station.
The final decision on the merger lies with the mining companies, but Premier Roger Cook said he was confident an agreement would be reached.
The state government announced in 2022 it would be retiring all state-owned coal-fired power by 2030.
In April, Premier Coal, which supplies the state-owned power stations, announced the loss of between 70 and 100 jobs at its mine site near Collie, citing slowing demand for coal-fired power.
With coal soon to be gone, Australia must find other ways of keeping the lights on. (ABC News: Hugh Sando)
Meanwhile, Griffin Coal has been propped up by WA taxpayers since 2022 when the company was placed into receivership amid fears its collapse could place the Perth and South-West electricity system at risk of blackouts and jeopardise hundreds of local jobs.
In the past five years, the state government has spent $240 million keeping the privately owned miner afloat.
"I don't know where they'll get coal from because we won't be subsidising the coal mines as we do at the moment," Mr Cook said.
There are calls for federal backing of the coal industry workers. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
As state support ends, local Labor member Jodie Hanns has continued to call for federal backing.
