BP's changing lobbying disclosure amount? It figures.

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/21/AR2010072106271.html

What good is being a multinational corporation if you don't know how to make the most of loopholes in the law? BP filed a lobbying report shortly before the second quarter deadline on Tuesday night, saying it spent $1.7 million influencing the government last quarter, an increase of 8 percent from the previous quarter.

That's hardly surprising -- but what's more notable is the fact that it also reported its first-quarter lobbying decreased by 55 percent. Back in April, when the first-quarter report was due, BP said it had spent $3.5 million. On Tuesday, it filed an amendment saying it really only spent $1.6 million.

A company spokesman said the reason the figures changed is that one trade association, the American Petroleum Institute, revised how it calculated the amount of dues that BP would need to report. Corporations and trade associations have always had the option of using an IRS definition of lobbying or one created under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which requires the filings.

"BP has always included in its lobbying disclosure the dollar amounts it pays to trade associations that are attributable to lobbying," the company said in a statement. "Beginning in 2010, API provided this figure to BP using a different definition of lobbying contained in the LDA."


More at the link ---

[Curmudgeoness]

1. "It figures"---uh, no it doesn't. Why loopholes like this are not closed

is beyond me. Let's keep changing rules in the middle of the game. US budget---but leave out the war costs. Only Congress can declare war---unless they just give the president authority to act if necessary. It goes on and on.