Declining fuel use compared with past decades may also be helping Americans cope with increased prices at the pump. Household consumption of energy as a share of total spending was 5.6 percent this year, down from 8.9 percent in 1980, according to Riccadonna of Deutsche Bank.

The U.S. has reversed a two-decade-long decline in energy independence, increasing the proportion of demand met from domestic sources over the last six years to an estimated 81 percent through the first 10 months of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the Energy Department. That's the highest level since 1992.

Domestic oil output is the highest in eight years. The U.S. is producing so much natural gas that, where the government warned four years ago of a critical need to boost imports, it now may approve an export terminal.

Retail gasoline rose to $3.793 a gallon in the week ended March 5, the highest level at this time of the year in records going back to 1990, according to the Energy Department. Futures on the Nymex have advanced 23 percent this year, settling at $3.314 a gallon yesterday. Prices may average $4 a gallon this summer and as much as $5 in some East Coast areas, Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group, an energy-consulting firm in Villanova, Pennsylvania, said in an interview.

Confidence as measured by the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was minus 36.7 in the week ended March 4, the highest since April 2008, up from minus 38.8 in the prior period, according to figures released yesterday. Auto sales in February accelerated to a 15.03 million annual rate, the fastest in four years, from 14.13 million in January, according to Ward's Automotive Group.

The U.S. has added more than 200,000 jobs for two consecutive months. A report today may show payrolls rose by 210,000 in February and the jobless rate held at 8.3 percent, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

A modest increase in the hours worked and payroll growth at the recent pace would mean nominal disposable income grows by almost $500 billion this year, according to Soss of Credit Suisse.

While employment and the economy have dominated the presidential election campaign, exit polls show fuel bills are an increasing concern for voters. In Ohio's March 6 presidential primary, 93 percent of Republican primary voters said gasoline prices were "a factor" in their vote, with 74 percent saying they were "an important factor."

"Higher gas prices are like a tax straight out of your paycheck," President Barack Obama told an audience at a Daimler Trucks North America plant in Mount Holly, North Carolina March 7. "You and I both know there are no quick fixes to this."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia promised in a Feb. 22 Republican presidential debate that as president he would pursue an energy program including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge so "every American can look forward to $2.50 per gallon gasoline." Fellow candidate Mitt Romney said Obama "has tried to slow the growth of oil and gas production in this country, and coal production" in a March 1 speech in Fargo, North Dakota.