He Can Stop Terror; Carbon's Another Story

Fox's 24 has its share of problems—Kiefer Sutherland's DUI imprisonment, rewritten scripts, the writers strike—but one writer still won’t give Jack Bauer a break, hitting the set to probe the show’s promise to reduce its carbon footprint. One exec congratulates himself on picking “our toughest show” for the green challenge—but the New Republic's Amanda Fortini has mixed feelings.

Generators running on biodiesel, motion-sensor light bulbs, electronic scripts, and Priuses have trimmed the show's emissions by 125 metric tons (from 1,684 last year), the exec claims. But one staffer laughs, calling the endeavor “talk, talk, talk”—and stressing the eco-unfriendliness of action entertainment. The Fox honcho admits shock value comes first, but says he hopes to set off smaller explosions in future. (More Jack Bauer stories.)