Can Kevin Costner Save the Gulf?

Meredith Jessup | June 26, 2010 4:53 PM

Not gonna lie--it's been pretty strange hearing Kevin Costner's name thrown in the mix with potential solutions for bringing relief to the areas affected most by the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Reportedly, the actor has invested $20 million and spent the past 15 years in developing an "oil-separating centrifuge," and so far, BP is giving the device a thumbs up. In fact, Yahoo! News reports that the company is ordering more than 30 of the Costner centrifuges to help in the Gulf cleanup.

Though I still haven't forgiven him for exposing us all to "Waterworld," if his device is successful in helping to clean the ocean waters of the Gulf, he'll come a lot closer to redemption in my book.

In the meantime, there remains one major bump in the road:

In his congressional testimony, Costner recounted his struggle to effectively market the centrifuge. He explained that although the machines are quite effective, they can still leave trace amounts of oil in the treated water that exceeds current environmental regulations. Because of that regulatory hurdle, he said, he had great difficulty getting oil industry giants interested without first having the approval of the federal government.

Doh! So close, and yet so unbelievably far away.