Officials from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana have told Yahoo News and local NBC affiliate WDSU that BP bused in hundreds of temporary workers to make it look like they were doing more than they were for oil-slicked local beaches.

The workers pictured above were lining the route for Obama's motorcade through the region yesterday. Officials told WDSU that as many as 500, perhaps including these, were brought in only for the day, at $12 an hour. Until that point there had been "no more than a dozen" workers on Grand Isle beach.

Councilman Chris Roberts told Yahoo News that "the level of cleanup and cooperation we've gotten from BP in the past is in no way consistent to the effort shown on the island [yesterday]... as soon as the president left, they were immediately put back on the buses and sent home."

BP claimed, to WDSU, that it was just coincidence that the workers happened to arrive in great numbers on the same day the president visited. Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company "moved in considerably more people to fight the battle where the oil is." A local contractor said it was "absolutely a sheer coincidence."