In this crisis, as elsewhere, government has often used its power in ways that cause harm. Our government has also tried to hide the existence of a six-mile-wide oil plume under the Gulf and to discredit the scientists who found it. (And if you thought the problem was over, think again).
If you thought government regulation and other government meddling played no role in this disaster, see here, here, here, and here – just for a start.
Government has been regulating offshore drilling for decades – including while BP destroyed the Gulf, and maybe the Atlantic as well, or maybe, just maybe, the entire planet (see also here, about a possible full-on ice age caused by the spill stalling the loop current that moves warm water north past the East coast and on to Europe).
Portable devices, which by their nature are not powered directly by wall current, are typically certified by groups other than UL, although, for example, "UL 1604 certification allows products to be used in potentially explosive environments found in oil and gas, petrochemical, aviation and other industries" ( per Panasonic, whose Toughbook laptops* are so certified) and UL has recently added mobile telephone battery certification to its list of services. You probably have a dozen or more products in your home with the "UL Listed" label, including the monitor on which you are reading this. We don't want to get electrocuted when we touch a toaster or vacuum cleaner, for example, and the makers of electrical devices (and their insurance companies) know that killing customers would be bad business, so – in this case – early in the industry's life, a young electrical engineer founded Underwriter Laboratories, a non-profit safety and testing firm. Regulation is a normal function of civil society.