The Dangerous Economist: Life is full of tradeoffs: More wind power might mean more light pollution & noise

See Lawmakers Crack Down on Wind-Turbine Lights That Flash All Night: Rural residents say it is like living on an airport runway by Shannon Najmabadi of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"For pilots flying over rural America, a string of red lights flashing along the horizon is a warning that there might be a wind farm ahead.
But for many residents on the ground, the lights are an eyesore that has ruined their view of the night sky and disrupted the bucolic stillness that defined their counties."
"After years of loose regulation, lawmakers in some states are cracking down.
Kansas and Colorado recently passed laws to limit the flashing lights—by turning them on only when aircraft are approaching. North Dakota approved a similar measure in 2017. A Washington state bill requiring light-mitigating technology was passed by lawmakers but hasn’t yet been signed by the governor.
Many wind developers and renewable energy proponents have backed the recent efforts."

"Aircraft-detection technology approved by the Federal Aviation Administration has been on the market for a half-dozen years. The systems are estimated to cost $1 million to $2 million to install with additional operating expenses each year.
Wind energy projects in the U.S., largely concentrated in a high-wind-speed corridor stretching from North Dakota to West Texas, have been slow to adopt the mitigation solutions. None of the more than 40 wind farms in Kansas, one of the top states for wind-energy producing, use systems that light up only when aircraft are near. Two projects under construction in Kansas have been approved to use the light-minimizing technology."
"Towns, counties and states passed some 1,800 ordinances regulating wind energy as of 2022"
There is technology to "use radars to activate red lights if a low-flying aircraft comes within 3½ miles of a project." (this can reduce the problem but adds to the cost)
"The Federal Aviation Administration requires that wind turbines be painted a light color and have red lights on top. Developers are required to ask the agency to approve the use of light-mitigating technology for each project under the new laws.
Residents in states that don’t regulate the red lights have said the nighttime presence of the turbines has been more disruptive than they anticipated.
Nakila Blessing and her husband built a house on his family’s farm in Schuyler County, Mo., in 2018, on a hill looking out at fields and trees. Two years later, the 175-turbine High Prairie wind farm project was constructed. Ms. Blessing said their landscape is now cluttered with 500-foot-tall turbines and the night sky is polluted with light."
Ms. [Carrie] March said the new laws don’t address the litany of other complaints those who live near turbines have levied, including the sound of whooshing blades and the sense that they now reside in an industrial zone."