{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreidcgxgbzkigjsbqre36jc5dejdlt6ctkanzulumfbsw2jfea42p5q",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:sl2hrcwo6voaorzsr26d3bo2/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfzn3bktei72"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreigtu4teufpt4gc6hsz425nzdehlfqv3l7m4rfuiq3lijdvoolqabu"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/png",
    "size": 1975915
  },
  "description": "10 News Stories They Chose Not to Tell You",
  "path": "/your-daily-ten-10-2026-035/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-01T21:00:21.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
  "tags": [
    "Read More",
    "Subscribe now"
  ],
  "textContent": "**This is edition 2026/035 of the _Ten@10_ newsletter.**\n\nHi all,\n\nThis is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.\n\nEnjoy!\n\n* * *\n\n## 1. The Electricity rip-off that politicians won’t fix\n\nBryce Edwards\n\n  * ⚡ The Big Four gentailers —**Contact Energy** , **Genesis Energy** , **Meridian Energy** , and **Mercury Energy** — posted $1.86b in half-year earnings (up 45%) and lifted dividends 10%, while investment in new generation stayed flat.\n  * 💸 Household power prices rose 12.2% last year, with further hikes looming (7% from Meridian, up to 30% for some Genesis customers), hitting families during a severe cost-of-living crisis.\n  * 🏛️ Commentator **Duncan Garner** argues the 1990s electricity reforms under **Max Bradford** failed to deliver real competition, calling current profits “embarrassing” and political leaders out of touch.\n  * 🗣️ Former National leader **Simon Bridges** says energy costs are the top concern for businesses, slams “puff piece” media coverage, and calls the gentailer dominance (over 90% of generation and retail) “outrageous.”\n  * 🏢 Consumer and business groups align: **Consumer NZ** says gentailers’ “social licence” is fading, with nearly half of surveyed Kiwis viewing power bills as unfair and profits unjustified.\n  * 🔌 Independent retailers are disappearing — including **Flick Electric** and **Frank Energy** — reinforcing claims the market structure is dysfunctional and stacked against competition.\n  * 👑 Three gentailers are 51% Crown-owned, meaning the Government both regulates and profits from high prices — creating a major conflict of interest.\n  * 🏗️ Critics argue the gentailer model (generation + retail combined) creates an oligopoly, weak competition, and incentives to prioritise dividends over investment, with wholesale pricing rewarding cheap hydro at high marginal rates.\n  * 📊 Polling shows 49% support breaking up gentailers’ generation and retail arms, and 62% back government underwriting of new generation to lower prices — indicating broad public appetite for reform.\n  * 🧨 NZ First’s **Shane Jones** is the lone MP explicitly promising to campaign on breaking up or renationalising gentailers, while leaders like **Christopher Luxon** , **Chris Hipkins** , and **David Seymour** avoid structural reform.\n  * 🏚️ The electricity market is framed as emblematic of “Broken New Zealand”: concentrated corporate power, political inertia, rising costs, and a public paying for assets it originally funded.\n\n\n\nRead More\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "Your Daily Ten@10 - 2026/035",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-01T21:00:22.375Z"
}