Why does the government need to be involved at all? Surely some bank will happily lend money to 1,000 different gas drilling operations and take a cut of the su

Why does the government need to be involved at all? Surely some bank will happily lend money to 1,000 different gas drilling operations and take a cut of the successes and eat the losses. How is getting what amounts to a loan from Big Brother any different? (Because remember, another term for "covering frontloaded costs and recovering them on an amortized schedule" is "loan"!)