Two people stand staring at a 400-foot-tall wind turbine. But they don’t agree about what their eyes see. “It’s so graceful!” says one. “Are you kidding me?” says the other. “That’s a big, noisy hunk of junk!”

People value the beauty of the countryside in Minnesota. It’s dotted with farmhouses, trees, silver grain bins, and furrowed fields. Do wind turbines add value to the land? People can’t agree!

The slowly spinning turbine blades generate electricity. That electricity can make money for Minnesota and other places in the United States. Wind energy can bring wealth to landowners, power companies, and governments that charge taxes. But when a developer tried to put up dozens more wind turbines in southern Minnesota, people didn’t party. They fought back. They went door to door. They told neighbors, “Don’t support wind turbines!” Their plans are working. Wind projects are getting stuck.

Disagreement about wind energy is nothing new. And lots of arguments about it happen in the U.S. Midwest, where most U.S. wind turbines stand. People on one side of the issue think using wind to generate electricity benefits the planet. Wind blows often—for free. A big machine like a turbine can capture its strength. Wind energy is renewable. It won’t run out like fossil fuels. Landowners who allow turbines on their land can get lots of money from the energy companies that own and operate the machines. More turbines means more jobs building and fixing them. And using wind energy can make people’s electric bills cheaper.

“Not so fast!” others say. They don’t like looking out their kitchen windows and seeing machines with arms half as long as a football field. They say the turbines’ noisy whooshing keeps them awake at night. To shut out the sound, they close windows and blinds. They use white noise machines to cover up the sounds. For them, wind turbines don’t bring wealth. They bring worries: Will my farm lose value if turbines are built nearby? Who would want to buy a house overlooking a wind farm?