Pro-industry and tea party interests yesterday launched ads in the home states of four GOP "supercommittee" members that nudge the debt-cutting panel to boost domestic drilling and avoid ending oil tax breaks.

The ads are sponsored by Energy for America, a joint project of the industry-aligned nonprofit American Energy Alliance and the conservative mainstay Americans for Prosperity. Running in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan -- home to GOP Sens. Pat Toomey and Rob Portman as well as Reps. Fred Upton and Dave Camp -- the spots accuse President Obama of neglecting to acknowledge that "the oil, coal, and natural gas industries have been creating real jobs and economic growth without government giveaways."

"So why in these desperate times is President Obama specifically targeting American energy producers and their workers with new taxes and regulations?" the ads ask, before asking listeners to urge the lawmakers in each specific state "to stand against President Obama's plan to raise taxes and kill jobs."

Obama and Democrats on the 12-member supercommittee, tasked by August's debt-limit deal to look for upward of $1.2 trillion in long-term deficit reduction by late this month, have pressed for the rollback of several tax benefits for oil and gas producers. But the prospects of such tax changes clearing Congress are slim at best, illustrated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) decision last month to swap out the oil-industry hit for a millionaires' surtax on a pivotal job-creation vote (Greenwire, Oct. 6).

An Energy for America spokesman did not return requests for comment on the size of the ad buy in time for publication.