In 1984, under the leadership of John Cain, the ALP government signed a joint venture agreement with Alcoa to build an aluminium smelter at Portland.
[6] Given that most of this energy is derived from brown coal in the Latrobe Valley, the production of aluminium is a significant contributor to Victoria's greenhouse emissions.
In 2009 it was reported that the smelter in Portland has cost Victorian taxpayers $4.5 billion in subsidies.
[8] In December 2016 the smelter lost power for more than 5 hours due to fault on the Victorian transmission network.
[9] In January 2020, tornadoes tore down pylons on a 500 kV transmission line, causing the 500 MW smelter to be connected only to the South Australia grid for weeks, supplied by the Mortlake Power Station.