It's frustrating, even maddening, that the S.C. General Assembly didn't months ago pass a bill authorizing S.C. drinking establishments to pour drinks from big bottles of liquor. As a result of the legislative paralysis wrought by a turf fight between the state's four liquor distributors and 58 Class B liquor stores, drinking establishments are condemned to pour drinks from minibottles during the 2005 tourism season, which is now upon us.

The concern now, as the 2005 legislative session winds down, is that legislators still have not dispelled the paralysis even though both houses have passed free-pour bills. The S.C. Senate sided with the Class B liquor stores in barring the distributors from delivering liquor directly to bars, restaurants and hotels. The S.C. House, in contrast, cuts both the Class B stores and the liquor distributors in on the big-bottle delivery market on the theory that the resultant competition would be healthy.

Now, a House-Senate conference committee must agree on a compromise bill acceptable to both houses. But there's a chance the committee will fail to deliver a compromise because senators are dug in on support of the Class B stores and representatives are dug in on support of the distributors.

Like S.C. representatives, we think the state should create a real liquor-delivery market rather than perpetuate the Class B liquor-store oligopoly that came into being during the minibottle years. The ideal compromise would give drinking-establishment owners maximum flexibility to decide which liquors they buy and from whom.

The House conferees, led by Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Columbia, who wrote the House bill, should push hard for their position on this issue - but not so hard that the conference committee fails to produce a bill.

There's a lot more at stake here than who profits most in the brave new world of free-poured drinks. That world - if it ever arrives - will be safer for motorists because bartenders no longer will be delivering 1.7-ounce liquor jolts with every minibottle they sell. In a free-pour environment, there will be fewer inebriated drivers on the road - a blessing for residents of our communities and other S.C. tourism venues.

A free-pour also would be incrementally less unfriendly to the environment. Big liquor bottles can be recycled via glass-crushing machines. Minibottles can't and generally go to the dump.

It would be better, then, for legislators to produce a flawed bill that grants the lucrative new drinking-establishment-delivery market exclusively to the Class B stores than to let the matter lag until next year's legislative session. It's bad enough the voters' wish to end the S.C. Constitution's minibottle mandate, as expressed in November, must wait until 2006 for fulfillment. To make voters wait even longer would be an outrage.