News & Observer noted. "In what was clearly a razor-thin margin, both sides said they would have won if the votes had been counted."

"North Carolina is not a banana republic," Sen. Josh Stein (D) complained following the hearing. “That was no way to run a proceeding.”

Republican Sen. Andrew Brock said that opponents yelled "No!" so loudly that they must have confused the meeting with the “Spivey’s Corner Hollerin’ Contest.”

Environmental advocates have suggested that Republicans based the bill on model legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Republican state Rep. Mike Hager, who authored the bill, is an ALEC member.