The Costner Machine

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Enough of a break, back to the messy oil!

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June 17, 2010

Kevin Costner's creation could aid oil cleanup

Posted: 06:42 PM ET

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Actor and director Kevin Costner told a Senate subcommittee on Thursday that he feels somewhat vindicated now that BP has purchased a machine he helped develop years ago that separates oil from seawater.

The Senate Small Business Committee is evaluating proposals to clean up the Gulf Coast oil disaster.

Costner told committee members that the burden of cleaning up the oil in the Gulf of Mexico rests solely with the oil industry.

"For them to get over the bar of safety and pay the price is not too much to ask," he said. "It is not too much to ask for them to have to put in place the safeguards, the redundancies and muster the sheer will to throw an overwhelming response to the problem now."

Earlier this month, he told CNN's Anderson Cooper that BP ordered 32 machines from Costner's company. The devices use a centrifuge mechanism to separate oil from water and recycle the crude at the same time.