An eleventh-hour effort by Senate Republicans to gauge the potentially crippling impact of sweeping new regulations on Colorado's booming energy economy died Monday at the hands of ruling Democrats.

Killed on a party-line vote was a resolution authored by the GOP's Sen. Bill Cadman and House Democrat Rep. Wes McKinley, calling a cost analysis of the potential effect of pending new rules on oil and gas prices. Cadman, of Colorado Springs, told colleagues on the Senate floor that the regulations--soon to be released by the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission at the behest of Gov. Bill Ritter--could reduce oil and gas exploration by 20 percent to 30 percent and drive up the price of those commodities nationwide.

"Reductions of those quantities (of oil and gas production)...will impact prices, they will impact supply," Cadman said. "It's important that we have a review."

Democrats also rejected an amendment to the bill that would have required the commission to hold hearings on the impact of the regulations in the different regions of Colorado that have some of the highest concentrations of oil and gas exploration. The amendment by Republican Sen. Ken Kester, of Las Animas, sought commission hearings in all Colorado basins.

A bipartisan bloc of senators agreed today to clear the way for greater competition--and, they say, lower prices--for prescription drugs and other goods across Colorado. The Senate's adoption of Senate Bill 246, however, came only after two El Paso County lawmakers squared off over the bill's ultimate effects on the marketplace.

Senate Republican leader Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs, helped lead the charge for the measure, saying it would let major retail chains continue offering products like prescription drugs at low rates.

Yet, Colorado Springs Democrat Sen. John Morse pushed hard to derail the bill because of its effect on rival businesses that don't want the competition from lower prices--a concern that prompted McElhany to call for a reality check.

"Do you really want to supply the vote that kills $4 prescriptions in Colorado?" McElhany asked his colleagues during initial debate over the bill on Friday. Addressing them again today, he added, "The cost of health care is the single biggest issue for most of our constituents."

The GOP's Sen. Shawn Mitchell, of Broomfield, agreed, saying government, "should not get in the way of affordable prescriptions to Coloradans."