7 Unlikely Beneficiaries of the BP Oil Spill

Kevin Costner has invested $20 million over the years in centrifuge technology to separate spilled oil from seawater.

1. Charlie Crist
The Florida governor’s leadership in addressing the Gulf oil spill has paid off in the polls, says John McCormack in the Washington Examiner.

2. CNN
The struggling cable network has seen a rebound in ratings since BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank. Hard news like the oil spill is “traditionally CNN’s speciality,” says Danny Shea at The Huffington Post.

3. Haley Barbour
Having shown off his crisis management skills during Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi governor again “finds himself in a highly visible role during a Gulf Coast catastrophe,” says Mark Leibovich at The New York Times.

4. The coal industry
The big winner of the spill, at least in terms of energy policy, is the coal industry, says James Ridgeway at Unsilent Generation.

5. Brazil
The White House’s decision to put a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling after the spill was good news for Brazil, says Allen Johnson at Agence France-Presse.

6. Lawyers
“The Deepwater Horizon disaster might as well be known as the Trial Lawyers’ Full Employment Act,” says Robert Bryce at OilPrice.com.

7. Kevin Costner
The movie star has invested $20 million over the years in centrifuge technology to separate spilled oil from seawater. That investment has paid off, as BP has bought 32 centrifuge machines from Costner’s company to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico.