It should be interesting to see what today’s Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index comes in at in an hour or so since, in this Gallup report from Tuesday, rising pump prices along with higher payroll taxes – a double-whammy if ever there was one for consumers – were seen eroding confidence.

The latest Energy Department data shows that the situation is not getting any better.

There is some hope for the situation to improve in the year ahead as some progress is being made in getting more crude oil shipped out of Cushing, Oklahoma (where inventories are still quite high) and into the Gulf Coast area where it can be refined to make cheaper gas than with imported oil.

As always, the GasBuddy heatmap shows gas prices around the nation with nearly a dollar per gallon difference between the shale oil production states in the north and major population centers on the coasts.