It all depends on the kind of noise. While I'm a fan of alternatives, I have a new appreciation for noise issues after a farmer installed an industrial-style corn drying operation not far from my home - a very rural area where one can listen to the silence at night (which isn't really silent as there are many night creature sounds), but it's deep and wonderful. Anyway that corn drying operation, which was about a mile away as the crow flies, almost drove me insane. All I could hear, day and night, even in the house, was a constant, high-pitched hum. After a few weeks of it I was losing sleep, was irritable, especially at home, I felt like I could not breathe for that constant hum. It was torture. A number of residents complained (some weren't bothered, noise is one of those things, especically the kind of frequency the corn dryers emitted), and finally the farmer turned the thing off (on Christmas) and last year and this year I haven't heard it at all. Perhaps he decided an industrial style operation isn't applicable in rural Maine, I don't know.

I someone moves in and the noise is there, fine. But when you've lived someplace for ten years and suddenly something comes in that significantly impacts your quality of life, then there's an issue to be dealt with. In my case, no one was consulted. One day the noise was just there. And it was measurable because I had someone come out and measure it. But it was within the zoning ordinance limits, which obviously aren't as strict as Michigan. On the other hand there's a real need for non-fossil-fuel energy sources. Re: cars - absolutely they are noisy. But unless you live near a freeway, the sound isn't constant, 24-7, and it's the sounds with no relief that can be crazy-making. Literally.