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Another round of shaving environmental regulations is proposed in a bill introduced by a group of Republican state senators this week.

SB612 would do several things, including:

Prohibit cities and counties from enacting ordinances that are more stringent than state or federal regulations.

Eliminate riparian buffer protections that prohibit development on private property along the Neuse River and the Tar-Pamlico River basins.

Fast-track some stormwater management system permits, and erosion and sedimentation control plans.

Extend water and air quality permits from eight years to 10 years, and allow third parties to contest state regulators’ decisions.

The Regulatory Reform Act of 2013 continues the GOP-controlled legislature’s mission begun last session of stripping away environmental protections, which they say in some cases unreasonably hinder economic growth. The primary sponsors are Sen. Harry Brown of Jacksonville – who led last year’s regulatory charge in the Senate – along with Sen. Brent Jackson of Autryville, and Sen. Andrew Brock of Davie County.

Gov. Pat McCrory pitched his pro-business agenda to a receptive audience Friday morning: the annual meeting of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina at the State Fairgrounds.

His remarks were bookended by standing ovations and interrupted by applause three times, as he assured several hundred in attendance that their industry represented the kind of business people that he is trying to help.

On Wednesday, the General Assembly returns to Raleigh to begin the long session, which is expected to last about five months. In today's paper we take a comprehensive look at the people and the issues that will be making the news, and the laws, in the months ahead. From lawmakers to lobbyists -- and lawmakers turned lobbyists -- plus key staffers behind the scenes, and an army of competing interests, the statehouse on Jones Street is about to begin whistling like a kettle.

Like all political candidates, Pat McCrory made many promises in his campaign. Now comes the hard part. Can his keep his promises? Read more here and check out a feasibility study for his top goals.

More political headlines:

--Read Rob Christensen's six takeaways from Tuesday's election. See a huge graphic breakdown of the vote. And geek out on a precinct-level analysis.

New environmental regulations -- streamlined or weakened, depending on your point of view -- are taking shape in a proposal working its way through the state Senate. SB810, which is being called the Regulatory Reform Act of 2012, encompasses a hodgepodge of more than a dozen issues in a mere 5 ½-page bill.

Lawmakers are still hunting for regulations that need to be reformed. This afternoon they heard from a handful of interests that would like to see less regulation, including the poultry industry and landfill concerns.

The Joint Legislative Regulatory Reform Committee didn’t take any action, but heard from those representatives of private industry without inviting comments from the public at this meeting.

Henry Jones, general counsel for the N.C. Poultry Federation, described for legislators the situation in which a massive egg farming operation in Hyde County finds itself: It was authorized to operate under a clean water permit, but subsequent tests detected ammonia in nearby waterways. The state Division of Water Quality wants the company,  Rose Acre Farms, to monitor ammonia from its ventilation system, but the company has  gone to court to challenge the state’s authority.

Jones said a change in state law defining discharges as only those going directly into waterways, rather than polluting the water from the air or through storm water runoff, would be helpful.