Topeka ? An anti-coal group financed by a natural gas company has reported spending nearly $406,000 on its advertising campaign last year, setting a lobbyist spending record.

The group, Know Your Power, was required to file a report on what it spent on full-page ads urging readers to call their legislators “and let them know where you stand.” After the state ethics commission issued that ruling, the group filed its report.

The ads were a response to ads by another group, Kansans for Affordable Energy, which favors coal plants and started its newspaper and radio campaign after a state regulator blocked the construction of two coal-fired plants in southwest Kansas by refusing to grant a clean air permit.

The Know Your Power ads identified the group as “a coalition funded by Chesapeake Energy Corp.” That firm, based in Oklahoma City, is the nation’s largest supplier of natural gas.

Michael Grimaldi, a Chesapeake spokesman, said Thursday the ads were designed to provide Kansans with accurate information.

“We wanted to communicate the truth about energy, and we did that,” he said. “We think more and more Kansans agree that clean energy is better than coal energy.”

The Know Your Power report didn’t break down its expenditures beyond the total of $406,000 and didn’t report contributors because it’s a lobbying group and not required to report anything more.

But Kansans for Affordable Energy organized itself as a political action committee, which required it to report contributors and expenditures. That report showed payments in November for ads in 11 newspapers and on eight radio stations.

The same report showed Kansans for Affordable Energy received a $120,000 contribution from a subsidiary of Peabody Energy Corp., based in St. Louis, which has major coal interests. An additional $25,000 came from Sunflower Electric Power Corp., the Hays-based utility proposing the two coal-fired plants.

Both mass media campaigns attempted to influence public opinion before the Legislature started its session this week. Legislative leaders consider energy among the most important issues, and many lawmakers support construction of the coal-fired plants.

Roy Dixon, Kansans for Affordable Energy’s treasurer and lobbyist, said the spending reported by Know Your Power is probably “just the tip of the iceberg.”

The previous record for lobbyist spending reported by a single group or company was set last year, when the Internet Innovation Alliance, which supports the development of high-speed service, disclosed $150,470, all of it for media advertising. The state began requiring such disclosure in 1974.

Lobbyists already had reported spending more than $566,000 from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31, which means the competing ads on energy will push the total past $1 million for the first time.

“They have to persuade the voters, so we get to have this as a public discussion of what our energy future should be, and I think that’s a good thing,” said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, a Greensburg Democrat. “What’s good for people to know is that there are deep financial interests on both sides. There are major corporations that stand to benefit, either way.”

Both ad campaigns were inspired by a proposal from Sunflower to build the two coal-fired plants outside Holcomb. Rod Bremby, secretary of health and environment, denied a construction permit in October for the $3.6 billion project.

Bremby cited the plants’ potential carbon dioxide emissions, which many scientists view as a leading cause of global warming. But many legislators view the Sunflower project as vital economic development.