Turbines are getting so big and overpowering as to be outrageous in any rural context. Their impacts on the landscapes and lives of people is totally disproportionate to the minuscule contribution they make in providing renewable energy and the pitiful savings they offer in CO₂ reductions.

-Peter Ogden, Council for the Preservation of Rural Wales, Western Mail, 5 Dec., 2006

They're just a symbol for politicians who want to be seen to be green.

- Ann West, Country Guardian, U.K.

Don't get the idea that I've turned green. My business is making money, and I think this is going to make a lot of money.

- T. Boone Pickens, The Guardian (U.K.), Apr. 14, 2008

What is so menacing is the regularity and the scope of the noise, which feels like a giant heartbeat shaking the earth.

- Harry Mount, Daily Mail (U.K.), March 10, 2007

The irreparable ecological damage, loss of amenity and distressing divisions within communities caused by industrial wind turbines far outweigh any benefit of their insignificant and unreliable contribution to our energy needs. Their tiny, intermittent output of electricity and negligible CO₂ savings cannot possibly justify the sacrifice of our most potent national symbol and finite resource - the magnificent landscapes of Wales.

- Angela Kelly, Country Guardian, U.K.

Anyone who thinks that wind factories are environmentally friendly should Google 'Cefn Croes Photo Gallery', to see 100 chilling pictures showing how many miles of unspoiled Welsh countryside were disfigured to create the largest industrial site in Britain: all to 'save' annually less than a quarter of the CO₂ emissions from a single jumbo jet.

- Christopher Booker, Telegraph, U.K.

... [I]t will be the equivalent of a water company only supplying tap water when it's raining.

- Saiful Islam, U.K.

The [U.K.] government's thesis that the countryside of upland and coastal Britain is 'worth sacrificing to save the planet' is an insult to science, economics and politics. But the greatest insult is to aesthetics. The trouble is that aesthetics has no way of answering back.

- Simon Jenkins, London Times, Oct. 24, 2003

There should be a presumption against wind farms in the countryside where their scale, siting or cumulative effect would have a significant adverse impact on landscape quality and recreational enjoyment thereof.

- Countryside Commission, U.K.

We refuse to accept that our coasts and uplands should be sacrificed in this way, either as a penance for past failure to safeguard the environment or as a token contribution towards reducing atmospheric pollution or addressing possible shortages of fossil fuels. We believe that the costs of such a policy to a civilised society far exceed the perceived benefits.

- Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales

The larger the share of wind power in a particular grid, the more standby power will have to be available in that grid.

- World Wind Energy Association

It's not like riding a bike and leaving the car in the driveway .... Wind energy on the grid is more like riding a bike and having someone follow you in the car in case you get tired.

-Eric Rosenbloom, Vt

The tiny, intermittent output of electricity and the negligible CO₂ savings cannot possibly justify the huge sacrifice of that most finite resource -- our unspoilt and irreplaceable countryside. It is our duty to protect our rural heritage for present and future generations from such gross and unnecessary industrialization.

- Angela Kelly, Country Guardian, U.K.