It doesn't restrict our untapped natural resources such as wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas etc. Nuclear plants have very little emissions, and if it weren't for their scariness I'm sure we'd be getting much more of our energy from them.
It's more than just the scariness to the public : Governments, the nuclear industry and others have been trying to get the private sector to invest in nuclear power for decades, but no-ones buying, despite guarantees and subsisides, special deals etc. This should tell you something. Factoring in all the costs it's the most expensive way to boil water ever developed. The only benefit is you wind up with tons of weapons-grade fissile material, so nobody can afford to invest in this except governments, and you really have to want nuclear weapons to bother.
This is the best argument going to show that Iran secretly wants nuclear weapons, but you won't find any Western leader explaining the logic (because it applies to them equally).
™ Version 4.2