A newly formed Republican group broadcast its first commercial Sunday in four battleground states as part of a $3 million advertising campaign aimed at Senator Barack Obama.

The advertisement opens with images of gasoline prices flying upward at the pump as a narrator says, “Record gas prices, a climate in crisis.” It then highlights Senator John McCain’s differences with his own party on energy policy.

The commercial closes by summing up Mr. Obama’s positions on energy as “just the party line,” a reference to his opposition to suspending gas taxes or drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as he and other Democrats contend that a McCain presidency would represent a third Bush term.

In response to the advertisement, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, Hari Sevugan, said in a statement: “What we need to solve our energy crisis is an honest debate about the choices before us, not more attack ads that mislead voters about the facts.

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The new group, led by Brad Todd, a consultant who worked on the campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, began broadcasting the commercial Sunday in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with plans to put it up elsewhere.

The group is an independent expenditure arm of the Republican National Committee, which is flush with cash in comparison to its Democratic counterpart; under federal election restrictions, the new group is not allowed to coordinate with the McCain campaign.