So the environmental protection agency sets the standards of what is acceptable and what is not. Do we vote for these guys, cause I haven't seen them on any ballot. So some none elected official is setting policies in a republic? Kind of odd I think.

I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. Edgar Allan Poe