From Business Week.com:
President-elect Barack Obama won't pursue a windfall-profit tax on oil companies because crude prices have dropped below $80 a barrel. The pledge to pursue taxes on Big Oil—a key constituency and benefactor of the Bush Administration—was a potent campaign issue for many left-leaning Obama supporters and a key point of populist rhetoric as gasoline prices surged above $4 per gallon this summer. But that was then. Oil has since sunk below $50 per barrel, and with the country facing a deep recession, the incoming Administration has put new taxes on the back burner.