Gas prices may hit record

January is usually a month when filling up your car or SUV is fairly painless, when prices are as cheap as they’ll be all year.

Not this time. Average California prices have risen 12 cents in the past week — 29 cents since Christmas — and are 54 cents higher than a year ago, fueled by global events that are making traders jittery. And a growing number of analysts predict that 2006 could be the year that shatters the record set 25 years ago.