Over the next decade, NC will be confronting a number of emerging ocean and coastal policy issues. Among the policy issues are those relating to the siting of oil, gas, and alternative energy facilities and equipment in coastal or ocean waters, the privatization of public waters, the impact of rising sea levels upon ocean beaches and estuarine shorelines, beach nourishment and shoreline protection, development setback lines, the use of ocean outfalls to dispose of wastewater, and the future role of the Coastal Resources Commission. We will examine these and other emerging policy issues and the governing state and federal legal regime.