No, the 38 special example is nothing but to show the hypocrisy in the wording. It's a poorly thought out metric with little concern for handguns.
The problem I have with energy is for very similar reason. So many states will have something like 1000# at the muzzle, unless it's a handgun, then 500# is fine. So which is it? The 200gr bullet at 1100 fps from a handgun is perfectly lethal, but a 200gr bullet at 1400 fps from a rifle isn't? And that's besides the point that it is going to encourage people to use lighter, faster bullets, which is not always a bad thing, but I would argue most of the time it is. 45 acp for example, even plain jane Remington 185gr makes over 500#, but a buffalo bore 255gr +p at 925 fps doesn't. One of those is clearly a better choice, and is actually a very good choice for big game.
Maybe a bit of an extreme example, but my own 223 load of choice is a 60gr at 3000 fps. That's about 1200# at the muzzle. We even shot a black bear with it last year. Yes, it killed the bear, but it's not more effective than a 255gr at 925 fps. It's the same muzzle energy as a standard pressure 45-70 Winchester super-x 405gr at 1150 fps, and again, are they even comparable?
Muzzle energy means nothing. It's all about the bullet. It's all about shot placement. I'm not here to tell anyone what to use, but I am completely against muzzle energy as the metric to decide it.