Re: Why the snide?
Seems a bit of a silly thing to say. Brussels doesn't make the rules, they're decided by the Council of Ministers and your MEPs. The commission may propose them and implement them but they can't just make a new law up and put it into force!
I know there's a section of the UK which likes to believe that the commission is awash with their cash and spends day after day trying to think of ways to piss of little Briton but I suspect that may be an exaggeration.
As for air pollution, to take your example, that would have been agreed by the national governments (council of ministers) and our MEPs. I can see why agreeing it across a trading block is fair as it means we're all on a level playing field. Besides which to some extent we get the pollution of our neighbors dumped on us due to winds :-)