Washington (Platts)--8Sep2011/1254 pm EDT/1654 GMT

The US should open new areas to oil and natural gas exploration to increase federal revenues, a Republican member of the congressional debt reduction "supercommittee" said Thursday morning.

After the first meeting of the panel, Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, also the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called for more energy production as a way to add to federal coffers.

Upton originally planned to make the request as part of his opening statement to the committee, but cut the section due to lack of time, he said in a brief interview.

Article continues below...

Sign up for Inside Energy
	Inside Energy brings you reporting on energy policy developments in the US government and how policy decisions and implementation impact the production, delivery, and use of energy resources. Content includes oil, natural gas, electricity, coal, nuclear energy, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

"We can grow by expanding energy production, which will create significant new jobs while bringing in federal bonus bids and royalties not to mention significant tax receipts from increased economic activity," according to remarks Upton prepared for his opening statement but did not deliver.

Upton said he has not discussed that proposal with other committee members, or prepared a more detailed proposal for that or other energy issues that could come up at the committee.

No other members seconded Upton's lead on energy exploration. On Wednesday, four committee members said in interviews that it was too soon to discuss detailed energy proposals.

Several committee members called for reforming the US tax code, including Senator Pat Toomey, Republican-Pennsylvania, who cited the expiring ethanol blending tax credit as unnecessary and wasteful tax preference.

"We have ethanol tax credits that are bad economics, bad tax code," Toomey said.

Senator Jon Kyl, Republican-Arizona, urged members to avoid controversial issues that would stall the committee's work or expand its scope unnecessarily.

"We're only going to succeed if we can avoid partisanship," Kyl said.

The supercommittee is comprised of six Republicans and six Democrats, equally from the House and the Senate. None of the Democratic members spoke about energy Thursday.

The committee is scheduled to meet next on September 13, to hear testimony on the causes of the current federal deficit. The committee is charged with drafting a bill that would cut about $1.5 trillion in federal deficit, with a committee vote on the bill due by November 23.

--Keith Chu, keith_chu@platts.com