Click here to watch "Balance."

The Republican National Committee began running a TV spot on energy over the weekend in four key battleground states, making this the first ad either party has released since the general election campaign began in earnest this summer.

"Balance" (subscription), running in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, touts John McCain's "balanced" energy plan while attacking Barack Obama for offering "no new solutions."

"Record gas prices, climate in crisis -- John McCain says solve it now with a balanced plan: alternative energy, conservation, suspending the gas tax and more production here at home," the ad's narrator says. Ironically, the RNC praises McCain in the ad for bucking the party. "He's pushing his own party to face climate change," the narrator says, in contrast to Obama, who she says offers "just the party line" on energy.

The spot's release precedes a week chock full of economic talk -- both McCain and Obama are set to embark on tours emphasizing how they intend to revitalize the suffering economy. McCain's "Jobs First" tour includes the four states where "Balance" is running, though the RNC says the ad's release was not intended to correlate with the senator's trip.

Brad Todd, a GOP media consultant who heads the newly formed independent expenditure arm of the RNC that produced the ad, said they chose energy as a topic because of its increasingly important role in the election. "It's an emerging difference between the two candidates, and one that is very relevant to how the public is viewing the race," Todd said.

The monetary disparity between the RNC and the Democratic National Committee couldn't be exemplified any more clearly than with this ad buy. With the total cost ringing in at more than $3 million, this spot alone nearly matches the total amount of money -- $3.9 million -- that the DNC had in the bank at the end of May. The RNC, on the other hand, is sitting on more than $50 million.

The DNC isn't exactly doing nothing on its end, though. It launched a new Web page and Web video aimed at "highlighting McCain's promise to continue President Bush's failed and flawed economic policies," according to a committee press release.