Last week, as I drove from Aberystwyth to Portsmouth, I decided to conduct an unscientific survey of sorts: Count the number of turbines visible to me.

Wales first, down through Llangurig, Bulith Wells, over to Abergavenny and down to the M4. Then cross over to England and count there, from the Prince of Wales Bridge then, past the outskirts of Bristol, turn off towards Bath and past Salisbury on to Portsmouth.

There’s one subject lately that dominates my Letters to the Editor email and its windpower. Turbines. Green energy generation. And what’s happening to the Welsh countryside.

As Editor, I mostly try to keep an open mind on subjects. All may not appear when it comes to those who write letters for me to consider for publication. By nature, I’m cynical and a healthy dose of the stuff is more than useful in my profession.

There are the regulars who put fingers to keyboards and tap out their thoughts, and there those with their own agenda. I can smell them a mile off, and they write with all the finesse of Captain Hook and seem to think that adding in a bunch of capital letters and exclamation marks! Will somehow enhance their self worth and importance. As Shania Twain sang: That don’t impress me much.

I also believe that we at Cambrian News have a responsibility to cover news and issues, ask awkward questions, and present things when they simply don’t add up.

We are required to be truthful.

We are not required to be impartial.

And, when it comes to issues that affect the quality of life where we all live in mid and west Wales, I believe we have a duty to point out when harm is being done.

I spent a good part of my professional career working across the Mideast covering wars and conflicts. I’ve written extensively on energy and the politics of oil and gas - all of the stuff that comes out of the Persian Gulf now on a daily basis given that President Trump and Israel have decided to ignore decals of conventional wisdom and military and geopolitical analysis and attack the regime in Tehran.

It’s relevant now because the powers that be in Westminster will be trying hard to convince us all that more green energy is needed and we need to divest from our dependency on fossil fuels and the geopolitical and economic risks they carry - as witnessed by the shock effect at the pump from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Across mid and west Wales, there are dozens of windfarm projects in the approvals pipeline, adding to the dozens already approved and the scores already built.

Soon, it will look as if every hillock in every parish will have a turbine bigger and more imposing than the previous generation. This week’s front page photograph shows a base being laid for one of the huge megastructures and, on the face of it, would seem to fly in the face of claims that the technology is carbon neutral and environmentally friendly.

But the UK does need green energy. That sentence, however, does not mean that mid and west Wales alone has to bear the brunt of these windfarms, or that other green technologies should be excluded.

Why, for example, are the huge wind turbines, almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower, not being placed at sea? And now off the coast of Wales either?

Why is it that Wales - and mid and west Wales in particular - seems to be the only area of the UK where there is such pressure for these windfarms to be built?

Why hasn’t as much effort been put into developing other forms of green energy? That proposed tidal barrage off Swansea and the Bristol Channel has been on and off again more often than a bishop’s frock.

Why aren’t the concerns of the residents of the communities where these wind farms are going being addressed?

Who gave these energy companies carte blanche to build where they want?

And why isn’t there a moratorium on these put in place for now until at least the new Senedd has a chance to decide the path forward for Wales?

It seems as if there is an agenda at play here straight from the Trump playbook. Clearly, there are people who have their own agendas at work and, given the speculation over the reasons for the arrests of three individuals with alleged ties to China, then not only sceptics such as I have reason to be worried.

But back to my unscientific survey taken on that recent drive from Aberystwyth to Portsmouth.

In Wales, I counted 139 wind turbines.

England? 32.

So, why the heck is Wales getting so many? There are a lot of hills in England that could do with a turbine or two.

Isn’t it about time Wales told these turbine companies to go and blow?