More specifically, and as mentioned in related threads, Constitution-ignorant citizens unsurprisingly don't understand that the Founding States made the Constitution's first numbered clauses, Sections 1-3 of Article I, to clarify that all federal legislative powers are vested in the elected members of Congress, not in unelected federal bureaucrats like those running the EPA.
In other words, Congress has a constitutional monopoly on federal legislative / regulatory powers whether it wants it or not. And by delegating legislative powers to nonelected bureaucrats, Congress is wrongly protecting such powers from the wrath of the voters in blatant defiance of the statutes referenced above.
So it's no surprise that when the constitutionally toothless EPA shout "Jump!," low-information citizens reluctantly reply, "How high?"
And what's even worse is that the states have never delegated to Congress, via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate the environment. So corrupt Congress is actually delegating regulatory powers to third parties that it doesn't have to begin with.
Are we having fun yet?
Yes, so these actions and authorities are illegal, but we have moved beyond a nation of laws. The old truism of Might makes Right is now in effect. In the final analysis the Feds have more and bigger guns, whether they fire real bullets or paper ones through the IRS, EPA, FCC, FAA or whoever. If there is not an epiphany in 2014 and the direction of the GOPe, I despair that any solution will come from within the system.