I first read about this in the May 23, 2010, Sunday edition of the Omaha World Herald - which is not exactly a bastion of liberalism. It is, however, a pretty respectable newspaper that can be trusted to be pretty accurate. The story was originally published in the LA Times.
The "Kevin Costner Solution"
What does it say about private enterprise and our government, when an actor spends his own time and money ($24 million of his own money) to purchase technology in 1995 and give it to scientists and engineers to finetune?
The amazing part is that it's so simple - basic high school science, using centrifugal force and the different molecular weights of sea water and oil. According to the article, it's supposed to be tested this week in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, which has already lost fragile bayou to the ever-increasing spill.
This technology was developed with help from the Department of Energy - only to be sold to a private citizen. Why? Shouldn't this technology be part of the "toolkit" of the government to deal with disasters of this magnitude? At least then we wouldn't have to let private corporations dinglefart around cleaning up their messes. It's like trying to get a 3-year old to scrub the crayons marks off the wall - they don't have the skills nor do they understand why what they did was wrong. It's up to the parent to take away the crayons and scrub the wall, or that wall is never getting clean.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this technology works, not only for the sake of Plaquemines Parish, but for every other spill that happens until we develop truly clean energy.
Hooray for Hollywood!