For my taste - wind turbines are disgusting. A blight on the landscape for minimal benefit compared to other energy sources. Give me 1000’s of acres of solar vs 100 acres of wind farm.
If you have to live close to them - they never go away… everywhere you look, giant white (why are they white anyway? Why not sky blue?)
Not to mention the nighttime visual pollution. Drive into Rockport, TX after dark and its endless skyline of red flashing lights — that all cycle at the same time. Beyond obnoxious.
That just my view of the aesthetics…
Nobody ever bothers to talk about what will be done with these football field sized blades (I’m guessing at least 100k of them by now?) when they’re decommissioned? Completely useless material that has to be buried somewhere… I guess everyone here will volunteer to bury one in their backyard?
You think the “buy and dump” problem is bad in oil and gas? … do you think any of the companies who signed these 30 year leases will be around to de-com the turbines when they start falling apart? (Answer is no)
Then there’s the never ending problem of freezing… nobody has good solutions and most of them involve the same harmful chemicals or secondary energy sources or helicopters or whatever that all derive from the hydrocarbons everyone seems to hate.
As for oil wells - most are hidden from view (unless you’re in West Texas, of course … not much growing to hide them…)
Also fwiw - a pump jack is only one form of artificial lift for a well. There are lots of others systems that are far less obnoxious (i.e. you can’t see them in the brush unless you get close)