The problem is overkill, the government doing too damn much, and the people in government having much more power over things than they ever should have acquired.

For example, it's reasonable to have regulations on offshore oil facilities, involving standards on equipment, inspections, and methods of dealing with leaks. It's reasonable to have laws requiring oil companies to pay for accidents.

It's unreasonable to simply shut millions of square miles off to any activity at all.

I think we might both agree that the anti-nuclear pendulum has swung a bit far, too. Again, I have no problem with that industry being regulated, but not to the point where it becomes impossible.

Environmental regulations have a place when you are dealing with things like air and water that are held by their very nature in common. But there's never a stopping point.

We cleaned up our lakes and rivers, and our air. But it wasn't enough to get rid of harmful pollutants. The environmentalists turned around and criminalized the very process of combustion itself. And I doubt they're going to stop there. This isn't really about the environment for a lot of them, and never has been.