Top executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are likely to be called before congress next week to explain why their record profits shouldn’t be used to help people with their energy bills.

The Associated Press reported that Congressional and industry officials said executives of those three companies will be called the week of Nov. 6, though a final list has not yet been released.

The three companies earned a record-setting combined total of more than $22 billion during the third quarter of 2005, lifted by record-setting oil prices as well as prices at the pump following Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

Meanwhile, some in Congress are calling for some interesting solutions to the problem.

Charles Grassley, R-IA, sent a letter to oil companies hoping to encourage them to share 10 percent of their profits with poor Americans to help them pay their winter heating bills.

According to Reuters, Grassley wants the oil companies to contribute to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which spent $2.2 billion in 2004 to help poor and elderly people pay their heating bills.

Senate democrats made a similar request last week, Reuters reported, also asking the oil companies to donate 10 percent to the program.

And Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, is still working to push his windfall profits tax through Congress. Dorgan said in a news release that he hopes to put the proposal – a 50 percent tax on the sale of oil over $40 per barrel – into a tax bill later this month.