A trio of companies under fire from presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign over their relationships with the Obama administration fired back yesterday, dismissing allegations that they received special treatment.

Romney's campaign launched a new message strategy this week accusing the White House of granting preferential treatment to donors and criticizing a handful of energy industry firms as the alleged beneficiaries.

"I'm ashamed to say that we're seeing our president hand out money to the businesses of campaign contributors," Romney said at a campaign event yesterday in Irwin, Pa. "When he gave money, $500 million in loans, to a company called Fisker that makes high-end electric cars and they make the cars now in Finland, that is wrong, and it's got to stop."

In addition to Fisker Automotive, Romney or his surrogates have highlighted First Wind, California-based solar thermal developer BrightSource and venture capital firm the Westly Group, as well as bankrupt California-based solar firm Solyndra, which the Romney campaign has often highlighted, including staging a press conference as the firm's abandoned headquarters earlier this year.

But a spokesman for California-based Fisker Automotive dismissed Romney's attacks yesterday, asserting that the presumptive GOP nominee has misstated facts about the firm and its operations.

"From our perspective, we're totally nonpolitical. We're in the business of bringing American technology to market," said Roger Ormisher, Fisker's senior director of global corporate communications and public relations. "That's our absolute focus."

Ormisher disputed Romney's contention that the firm has used taxpayer funds to move operations overseas, stating that no such funds have been used for jobs outside the United States and noting that the company is primarily funded by more than $1 billion in private equity.

"We've been under the spotlight before. ... It's frustrating," Ormisher acknowledged. He said Fisker executives have previously reached out to the Romney campaign to no avail but had not done so in response to the most recent attacks. "It's unfortunate."

Ormisher notes that Fisker has received two loans from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, totaling $169 million and $359 million.

The smaller loan provided funds for engineering, design and development of the company's electric vehicle known as the Karma, which is manufactured in Finland. Ormisher said engineering of the vehicle was conducted in the United States, and none of the funds were used in Finland.

The larger of the loans is being used to designed and produce the Atlantic, also an electric vehicle, which is slated for production in Wilmington, Del. Ormisher added that less than $25 million of the second loan has been disbursed by DOE to date.

The Republican National Committee took aim this week at Steve Westly, the founder of Westly Group and a bundler who has helped raise more than $1 million for President Obama's 2008 bid and 2012 re-election campaign.

The RNC accused Westly, a former California state controller and failed candidate for governor, of utilizing his fundraising prowess and his post on Energy Secretary Steven Chu's advisory board to help obtain DOE funds for several companies in which his venture capital firm is invested.

In a statement provided to E&E Daily, Westly dismissed the RNC's attack, saying it is "false, misleading and has no factual basis."

"This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by the RNC to distract from Gov. Romney's record at Bain Capital as an outsourcer of American jobs and his failure to release details of his tax returns," Westly stated, referring to recent media focus on when Romney left his post at the helm of investment firm Bain Capital. "This story has already been thoroughly investigated by the press and found to be baseless."

Joel Berman, a personal spokesman for Westly, added: "Mr. Westly never contacted the Department of Energy or the White House regarding loan or grant applications for Westly Group portfolio companies. His service on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board is purely advisory, all meetings are open to the public, and SEAB has no authority or oversight over DOE loans and grants."

A spokesman for Boston-based First Wind likewise expressed puzzlement over criticisms from the Romney campaign, telling E&E Daily: "We're proud of the business we've built. First Wind has invested billions of dollars in the U.S., building 13 state-of-the-art wind projects that are generating clean, renewable electricity for homes and businesses across the country."

"We are building another three projects right now that will be operating by the end of 2012," added First Wind director of corporate communications John Lamontagne. "That investment has put more than 2,000 men and women to work, not to mention thousands more at the U.S. manufacturing plants of our turbine suppliers. We have applied for available federal loan programs and nondiscretionary tax credit programs, and we are repaying our loan on schedule. We are proud to be a company that has been able to grow and build projects that deliver clean energy at competitive prices. We're puzzled that First Wind is being criticized for being a successful U.S. company, but we will continue our efforts to build and operate excellent wind projects."