If you thought the fist-shaking over BP's lack of progress in cleaning up the Gulf was over yesterday, you're wrong. The anniversary of the spill, the once-again-profitable oil company also happened to be the deadline to report spending on lobbying. The $2-million spent places BP's spending on track to top last year's total of $7.4 million, but it's working. BP achieved their top priority to convince Obama to lift to moratorium on offshore drilling. Further lobbying efforts include advocating Congressional Republicans' a controversial bill to speed up the drilling permit process and appealing to various governmental agencies to limit BP's contribution to the cleanup effort.

But wait there's more. BP also chose the anniversary of the oil spill as the right time to sue Transocean, the owner of the fated rig, for at least $40 billion. (Remember, BP agreed to pay only $20 billion in damages but have only paid $6 billion so far. And they're evidently trying to pay less according to the above lobbying efforts.) Halliburton and Cameron International, the manufacturers of the device that failed to stop the leak, also got slapped with lawsuits to the tune of $20 million and $12.9 million, respectively. BP wants to be reimbursed for losses that came as a consequence of last year's disaster. Though BP faced losses in the wake of the oil spill, they're back in the black this year.

The timing of this news is a bit awkward from a PR perspective. But BP should be used to that by now.

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Adam Clark Estes