Education, Energy Picks Appear Set : Cabinet: Clinton is expected to name former South Carolina Gov. Richard Riley and utility executive Hazel O’Leary, a black, to posts.

President-elect Bill Clinton has chosen utility executive Hazel O’Leary to be his energy secretary and former South Carolina Gov. Richard W. Riley to head the Education Department, sources said Sunday.

The selections will be announced at a noon PST press conference today and will bring Clinton closer to his goal of choosing his top 25 Administration officials before Christmas. More announcements are due Tuesday and Wednesday.

O’Leary, a 55-year-old lawyer, is an executive vice president of Northern States Power Co. of Minneapolis. She held energy posts in the Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford administrations.

The nomination of O’Leary, who is black, will also bring Clinton closer to his goal of naming a Cabinet that “looks like America.”

Riley, 59, is a longtime Clinton ally and friend who, like him, was first elected in 1978 and quickly emphasized education reform. During his two terms, Riley pushed through a sales tax increase that sharply raised the state’s funding of public education.

O’Leary’s selection comes after Clinton’s first choice, retiring Colorado Sen. Timothy E. Wirth, ran into trouble. Republicans were expected to bring up Wirth’s connections to savings and loans at his nomination hearings, and Wirth had alienated others in Congress with a magazine article criticizing the institution and its members.

The choice of O’Leary also comes after days of increasing complaints from some women’s groups that Clinton seems to be falling short of his promise to adequately represent them in the highest offices. Clinton has chosen Donna Shalala for secretary of health and human services and appears likely to choose a female attorney general.

But to many women’s groups, this was not enough, since the last three presidents have each had two women in their Cabinets at the same time.

O’Leary visited the Arkansas governor’s mansion Friday as the women’s protest gathered momentum. One source denied that the protests had prompted O’Leary’s selection. But the pressure clearly must have brightened her star.

His 15 top-level choices to date include three blacks, one Latino and five women. O’Leary and Shalala have been chosen for two of the 14 Cabinet posts.

O’Leary’s selection may have gotten an important boost in a recommendation from Thomas (Mack) McLarty, the Little Rock utility executive and lifelong Clinton pal chosen as White House chief of staff. McLarty knew O’Leary through the utility industry.

O’Leary, a graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, was a state and county prosecutor in New Jersey. She is now in charge of Northern States’ corporate affairs division, supervising environmental compliance, human resources, public affairs and personnel at the company, which serves the upper Midwest.

Northern States has one of the largest collections of nuclear plants in the country, a source of concern to some environmentalists.

Several women have been named to sub-Cabinet posts or are leading candidates for unfilled jobs.

The candidates for attorney general include Judge Judith S. Kaye of the New York Court of Appeals and Brooksley E. Born, a Washington lawyer.

Clinton has included two blacks in his Cabinet announcements: Democratic National Committee Chairman Ronald H. Brown as commerce secretary and disabled Vietnam veteran Jesse Brown as secretary of veterans affairs. Former San Antonio Mayor Henry G. Cisneros, a Latino, has been named as secretary of housing and urban development.

Still open are Cabinet posts for the Interior, State, Defense, Transportation, Agriculture and Justice departments.

Front-runners include former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt for Interior, Clinton transition director Warren Christopher for State, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Les Aspin of Wisconsin for Defense and Chicago banker William Daley for Transportation.

Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.), a longtime ally of Clinton’s, also met with the President-elect at the governor’s mansion Sunday. Transition advisers said he remains the favorite to head the Agriculture Department but that Clinton likely would wait until Tuesday to fill the post.

Rep. David McCurdy of Oklahoma, who was reported earlier as a candidate for the jobs of defense secretary and director of central intelligence, said Sunday that he has had “no discussion” with transition officials about either job.

McCurdy said he was interested in the defense post but not the intelligence agency.

Clinton was asked after an early morning jog Sunday whether he had completed decisions on his Cabinet. “No, but I’m close,” he replied.

Meanwhile, Clinton has received briefing papers from advisers that list a series of options on domestic policy, including on welfare and government reform, campaign finance and national service. Unlike the recommendations from his economic advisers, who urged that Clinton shift to an increased emphasis on deficit reduction, these papers generally stick close to the Clinton campaign platform, aides said.

Clinton will not turn his attention to the option papers until he has made more progress in selecting his staff, aides said.

Clinton spent Sunday working on his Cabinet selections but also took time out to relax. After jogging, he went to church, took part in a Girl Scout ceremony at the governor’s mansion and in the afternoon received guests at a series of Christmas parties.

In comments to reporters, Clinton explained his recent throat irritations as an allergic reaction to the Christmas greenery that now fills the mansion.

“I have to reconcile myself to two weeks of my sinuses being full,” he said. “But it’s a nice thing.”