Oil company profits are under threat if Barack Obama makes it to office, reports Bloomberg. An aide to Obama described the oil companies profits as “remarkable.”

The plan would target profit from the biggest oil companies by taxing each barrel of oil costing more than $80, according to a fact sheet on the proposal. The tax would help pay for a $1,000 tax cut for working families, an expansion of the earned- income tax credit and assistance for people who can’t afford their energy bills.

As gas prices near $4 a gallon across America, oil companies have announced record profits.

According to The Washington Post: “US oil major Exxon Mobil reported $8.4 billion in first-quarter profit yesterday, as members of Congress outraged over high gasoline prices hastened to propose measures that would boost taxes on oil firms, open new areas to drilling and provide rebates to taxpayers but would not necessarily alter prices at the pumps.”