American Idol’s season finale, which appears to be happening on May 20 and May 21 (don’t know how a finale can be two separate shows, but whatever), will be a carbon-neutral event.  This is a part of FOX’s campaign to be a network with no carbon footprint by 2010.  FOX News/pollution joke goes here.  Anyhow, from the American Idol website:

In partnership with the LADWP [Los Angeles Department of Water and Power], FOX secured renewable energy for the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE for the duration of the American Idol production. The power will be provided by LADWP’s “Green Power for a Green LA Program,” and sources will include a combination of solar energy, wind energy and hydropower.

Impressive stuff.  You can by going to the LADWP website and checking out what they’re doing to promote renewable energy. 

More important, though, is this line in the press release I quoted above: the show will air “Tuesday, May 20 (8:00-9:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) and Wednesday, May 21 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX.”  Let me get this straight.  The show will be taped on the West Coast, aired live on the East Coast, and then played on the West Coast?  Doesn’t that preclude people on the West Coast, where the show is located, from voting or whatever?  Also, have you even been on the West Coast, watching an award show taking place in Los Angeles, and someone in New York calls you and tells you what already happened?  This is one of my big pet peeves.  Our coast, let us watch it live.  Dammit.