Mr Ripper said he had written to Prime Minister Mr John Howard three times since the collapse in last September of the Court Government's 18-year contract with the Woodside-Energy Equity consortium for a gas fired power station in West Kimberley.

The Deputy Premier said he wanted answers to questions relating to the commercial viability of the project. These include the assumption of risk, the extent to which any capital investment will be tax free as well as the Commonwealth's willingness to indemnify the State in maintaining an appropriate energy price.

"The Government has now received a letter from the Prime Minister but it did not address any of the critical issues," Mr Ripper said. "Indeed, the letter does not give any impression that the Commonwealth has been actively with this issue for the best part of two years - having commissioned its own due diligence study in 2000."

Mr Ripper said the State Government had already committed $15million for road works and would enter into a long-term power purchase contract through Western Power if there was a commercially viable project.

Delegates were drawn from Western Power, Treasury and the Office of Energy.