While the oil well spewing into the Gulf of Mexico may soon be plugged, another sticky substance is making its way around coastal communities. After the horrendous damage caused by the oil spill, government red tape is threatening to choke the last vestige of hope that life will ever return to how it once was in the gulf.

Almost immediately after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, the White House switchboard lit up with phone calls from all around the world. Countries such as the Netherlands, with its own long tradition of flood stoppage, offered their services, and citizens with ideas of how to stop the spill tried to speak up.

While onlookers stood at the ready, the government twiddled its thumbs and debated new studies. Even stars such as Kevin Costner had ideas. The actor had invested heavily into a centrifuge that could separate oil and water. A day after the spill, the government or BP could have purchased a prototype and shipped it to Louisiana within a week.

Almost two months after the spill began, BP finally purchased 32 machines, according to DailyTech.com.

The states have had an even worse time. The Army Corps of Engineers has taken weeks to approve plans by Louisiana and other states to stop the oil spill. Louisiana planned to complete a set of islands off of its coast to create artificial barriers against the oil. After the cleanup, the islands could be demolished.

The plan was rejected after a month of stalling.

Besides hijacking the legal system, the federal government is so focused on appeasing environmentalists, it is sacrificing American jobs and domestic resources.

There are thousands of jobs dependent upon the oil industry. Hundreds of oil rigs sit in the gulf supplying oil to Americans so Saudi Arabia will not have to. The government set a moratorium on Gulf of Mexico oil drilling, putting thousands of workers and support staff out of jobs.

The moratorium was overturned in court, only to be appealed and then refiled with slightly different wording. Meanwhile, the drilling rigs wait with only a skeleton crew for maintenance purposes.

Beyond the cleanup, the government is taking charge of the claims process, putting the fund of an ineffective BP claims service under federal control. As seen from the high amount of fraud associated with government bailout programs and the stimulus package, the $20 billion provided by BP will be gone in a heartbeat and given to the wrong people.

If the federal government wants to fix the spill, it will get out of the way. A body with the manpower of the United States government should be a force for good in this disaster. With fleets of ships and thousands of National Guardsmen, the beaches could be cleaned in a fraction of the time it is taking. Sadly, that is not the case.

Whether the time it will take for the black gunk in the Gulf of Mexico to be cleaned up is measured in months, years or generations, the federal government will be there to hinder efforts. A new BP commercial talks about “making things right,” but the gulf will never be made right ­— at least, not by BP, and especially not by the government.