Bills that would direct to transportation uses royalties from offshore oil and natural gas leases if the federal ban on coastal drilling is lifted are dead.

On the second day of Virginia's special legislative session on highway funding, bills offered by Republican Sens. Frank Wagner and Ken Cuccinelli were consolidated and died Tuesday on a 5-8 vote by the Senate Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee.

The committee's Democratic majority opposed the measures chiefly on environmental grounds.

Tension also surfaced between rural and urban legislators over measures that would change the formula by which state highway funding is allocated.

Rural legislators fear that a proposed formula based on population could leave them with no cash to build new roads or fix old ones.