"The need for environmental justice has been most widely recognized in communities of color and in low-income communities," notes the MEOE draft of the proposals. "Nationally, these two sectors of society have borne the largest burden of environmental degradation and have received the fewest environmental benefits. This policy builds on the national environmental justice framework by compiling a set of indicators that may help further identify communities at risk."

Once a community meets those standards, it can be subjected to heightened environmental monitoring. "It sets up an additional standard of use," Paul Matthews, spokesperson for the Chamber of Commerce here, tells GlobeSt.com. "The communities that fall under these standards, which are mostly urban areas, would be subject to more regulations than suburban areas." Also, under the new policy, any 10 taxpayers could petition the state to receive the designation if they felt a development was coming in that was not "just."

But Doug Pizzi, spokesperson for the Office of Environmental Affairs tells GlobeSt.com that, "There are places that are overburdened with emissions and before new uses are sited with more emissions we need to take a look at the cumulative effect." Pizzi also emphasizes that this is still a draft policy. "We take the public process very seriously," he says.