Recent legislative debate about new coastal stormwater rules highlighted the bizarre system North Carolina uses to approve new environmental regulations. An unelected Environmental Management Commission can develop its own rules, which take effect unless lawmakers act to stop them. JLF Director of Communications Mitch Kokai reported on this issue for Carolina Journal, then followed up with an opinion piece in the Charlotte Observer. Speaking of the Observer, columnist Jack Betts picked up on the CJ report for his own column on the same topic, which appeared in both the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer.