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Such a bad boy. | AP

June 4, 2024

From the world of “No (crap) Sherlock” comes news out of Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, regarding the black screen it installed to deter tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji.

The town of Fujikawaguchiko — which spent 1.3 million yen ($8,267) to put up a big, black screen to stop tourists from being an annoyance to locals as they tried to snap shots of Mount Fuji — found a camera-lens-sized hole in the screen at roughly eye-level the very next day. As many as 10 holes have since been discovered, proving there is always a way to beat the system. Also, what did the town really expect to happen? This was always an obvious outcome. 

That said, the town insists the screen has alleviated overtourism. Not sure if it is just trying to save face, but I guess even 1% less is still technically an improvement. Even if it sounds like there are “holes” in the process. 

Now, there is nothing stopping you from checking out these RTO Insider stories (except maybe a paywall): 

• Severe thunderstorms knocking out power to 1 million Texans did not stop attendees at a NERC-EPRI workshop on a draft standard ... addressing extreme weather’s effects on transmission planning. Tom Kleckner was in attendance as well. 

• Tom also has news from FERC as it accepted SPP tariff revisions that will allow certain transmission facilities’ costs to be entirely allocated on a regional postage-stamp and cost-by-cost basis. 

• Backers of the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative will move quickly on a proposal to alter the governance of CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market and Extended Day-Ahead Market after voting to approve the plan May 31. Robert Mullin reports. 

• ISO-NE expects to have adequate resources to meet its projected 24,553-MW peak load this summer, the RTO announced as part of its summer outlook. Jon Lamson has the details. 

• PJM’s Independent Market Monitor filed a complaint asking FERC to reject all energy efficiency offers into the RTO’s capacity market, alleging none of them meet the Base Residual Auction participation requirements. Devin Leith-Yessian has the story. 

• PJM should adopt a more proactive transmission planning process to deal with the changing resource mix and growing demand on its system in the coming 15 years, according to a report released by Americans for a Clean Energy Grid. James Downing breaks it down. 

Lastly, we have news from other sources: 

• “AP analysis finds 2023 set record for US heat deaths, killing in areas that used to handle the heat,” The Associated Press 

• “The US oil and gas industry is emitting less carbon than it used to,” Canary Media 

• “Car Wars: Is China’s electric-vehicle industry a threat to the U.S., or something to learn from?” The New Yorker 

From everyone at RTO Insider, thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day! Also, be sure to check out our latest news from NetZero Insider below!

Shawn McFarland  

The latest from NetZero Insider:

• $1B Committed so far to Floating Offshore Wind Shot
  

The latest from ERO Insider:

• SERC Reports Sufficient Resources in Summer Assessment
  

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