Gov. Tim Pawlenty vowed recently to push aggressively to tighten Minnesota’s standard for drunken driving by lowering the legal threshold to 0.08 percent blood-alcohol concentration.

Pawlenty said the state, which currently has a 0.10 threshold, should take the same route 45 other states have in adopting the lower limit, the Star Tribune reported.

The governor’s effort and fading opposition from the liquor lobby could settle the issue after six years of debate in the Legislature.

“We recognize this is an inevitability,” Joe Bagnoli, a lobbyist for the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association, told the newspaper. “There is a financial gun to his [Pawlenty’s] head. We can’t responsibly ask him to ignore it.”

Lawmakers failed to pass legislation this past session that would have lowered the legal limit and made the state eligible to receive $6.6 million next year in federal highway funding and nearly $20 million in two years.

A 3-year-old federal law required all states to adopt the 0.08 standard by October or risk losing millions in highway money. The other states that still have the higher limit are Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia.