Richard Sisk
New York Daily News
6/9/2010
WASHINGTON – Kevin Costner co-starred Wednesday in a blame-game Congressional production aimed on the Gulf oil spill.
“I’m not here because I heard a voice in a cornfield,” Costner said in a reference to his mega-hit “Field of Dreams.”
It was the only joke Costner told as he ripped the oil industry and the government for failing to stop and clean up the spill, and for ignoring the solution he offered.
Costner was touting a cleanup machine at a House hearing where government and academic experts testified on technology for scooping up or dispersing the oil.
Another hearing down the hall in the House Rayburn Office Building focused on liability for the spill, and yet another was packed with marine biologists speaking to the long-term effects.
Hearings on Congress’ own responsibility for regulation and oversight have yet to be scheduled.
“The most powerful country in the world is fumbling its way through the biggest environmental disaster in history,” Costner said.
In his prepared remarks, “Waterworld” star Costner said “I come before you as a discouraged U.S. citizen and an entrepreneur with a partial solution to the tragedy unfolding in the Gulf.”…
…The gizmos might not make much of a dent in the massive Gulf spill, Costner said, but they should be considered for the thousands of small-scale spills that occur annually.
“We are all at fault here,” Costner said. “It’s just too easy to blame BP. What we need to do now is come together.”
Costner said he was ready to go whenever he got the call. “What I can provide is a technology that is available immediately, a technology that will allow rigs to resume operation and put people back to work,” Costner said…
The complete article is at NY Daily News.
