This is a great video illustrating peak oil. Where we started and where we’re going to finish.

Congress lead their second round of questioning for the execs of the major oil companies on why gas prices were so high and how they can be okay with making so much money while people are paying so much for gasoline.

Don’t they understand that the oil industry is a byproduct of the transportation industry. I liken the analogy of bringing in the oil men instead of the auto men to trying to treat the symptoms and not actually find a cure for the disease. As long as the disease is still there, there will always be symptoms.

In fact, we’ve been here before and unless the transportation industry changes, we will come here again in the future.

Why doesn’t Congress hold the auto industry more accountable for the fuel efficiency of automobiles?

In that same article, John Dillin says:

John DeCicco, an engineer and fuel efficiency specialist, told me in the early 1990s that we could boost the mileage of US vehicles by 20 percent, even 30 percent, just by using the technology we already had. But people weren’t listening.

A few political leaders also sounded the alarm. In 1991, Sen. Richard Bryan (D) of Nevada urged Congress to mandate more-efficient cars and trucks. He called it a matter of national security.

Senator Bryan’s bill would have required that gas mileage rise to approximately 34 mpg in 1996, and 40 mpg in 2001. But Congress sat o­n its hands. Not until last year, with gas prices again soaring, did it mandate 35 mpg by 2020.

David Steckling, founder of Vapor Systems Technology, says that the technology for 100+ miles per gallon is already here but the auto industry along with the oil industry doesn’t want it to be widely known.

I’m pointing my finger back at Congress, stop wasting your time trying to treat the symptoms of high oil prices and find a solution to increasing the mpg for automobiles or how alternative fuels can alleviate our dependency on oil.

It’s rare that I’d ever have a $100 bill in my wallet, but I just got back from Vegas and fortunately I didn’t spend everything I had!

I stopped at the Exxon Mobil station here in Austin off of 183 and Braker to put some gas in my tank and all I had was a couple of $100 bills. I walked inside and told the cashier that I wanted $40 worth of gas, and then I show her the $100 bill.

She says, “Don’t have change for $100″.

I think, okay, it’s the middle of the afternoon, maybe they just made a bank drop and don’t have change. No problem.

I say, “okay, let me have $60″. I knew that my truck could easily have room for $60 and they must have $40 in the register.

“Nope, don’t have change for $100″, she says.

How does a gas station not have $40 in the register? If it was in a bad part of town, I could understand, or even if it was at night. But early in the afternoon in a better part of town?

I have nothing against the oil companies, but how the hell does Exxon Mobil not have change for $100? I just read the other day that Exxon Mobil posted $10.9B profit and they don’t even have change for $100?

After I walked out of the gas station I realized that she probably meant that she wouldn’t accept a $100 bill. Because there is no way they “didn’t have change” for the $100. But still, that’s no excuse to not accept a $100 bill. If my truck were on empty, it would cost between $85-$90 to fill up at today’s gas prices. But still, they wouldn’t take the $100 bill.

Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, made more than $16.7 million in salary and bonus in 2007. Hey, Rex, do you think you could break a $100 bill?