political dynamics have changed 
in Washington," said the group's president, Steve Miller, a Democrat who was 
Bill Clinton's campaign organizational chairman in Kentucky in 1992. "People 
have no idea of the environmental improvement the coal industry has made." 
To get that message across, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices has set up 
a Web site and prepared a media advertising budget of several million dollars 
to finance what Miller says will be "a longtime conversation with opinion 
leaders across the country." The purpose will be to counter the influence of 
environmental organizations. 
Separately, the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Energy, made up largely 
of trade associations, has been set up to lobby in Washington and has begun 
running advertisements in Capitol Hill publications. 
Electric utilities and their executives and
northeast Texas district was reconfigured in 1994, it contained strip mines 
and coal-burning power plants belonging to Texas Utilities Co., the third 
largest electricity producer in the United States. Barton has continued to 
receive funds from its political action committee. 
The coal industry itself has made use of its own extensive network of 
connections. The Interior Department's newly appointed deputy secretary is J. 
Steven Griles, who has lobbied for coal and gas companies ranging from 
Pittston Coal Co. to Dominion Resources. 
The Bush-Cheney transition team was sprinkled with industry officials, 
including Engelhardt and Steven Chancellor, president and chief executive of 
Indiana-based Black Beauty Coal Co. Chancellor and his company were major 
Republican contributors, and he hosted a fundraiser in August at his home 
attended by former president George