AS WE SEE IT, there are serious problems with the ‘hydro’ policies of Ontario’s two main political parties, the McGuinty Liberals and the Hudak Conservatives.

Having opted out of the nuclear power alternative as too costly, the Liberals have effectively put all their eggs in one “green” basket labelled the Green Energy Act.

The result is the prospect of wind turbines, many of which will be produced in the province thanks to a $7- billion deal with South Korea’s Samsung, sprouting up just about everywhere, with no guarantee that wind will produce much electricity when it’s badly needed.

Worse yet, the prices to be paid for wind-produced electricity are astronomical when compared with those from our existing nuclear, coal and hydro-electric plants.

And while developers of new wind projects are guaranteed huge returns on their investments, local municipalities may well wind up getting less than nothing from projects in their midst, since the token $40,000-per-turbine assessments won’t begin to offset potential losses in assessment if critics are right and the value of nearby properties collapses.

Meanwhile, Tim Hudak’s provincial Conservatives have jumped on the anti-wind bandwagon to a ridiculous extent, alleging that the issue pits “elitist special interests” against “local families,” and calling for a moratorium on new wind projects pending new research on possible health problems.

Of course, what’s really at issue in the wind debate is how best to shut down the province’s two remaining coal-fired generating stations while being able to keep the lights on.

The answer to that question ought to be of concern to all Ontario residents and not be obscured by partisan politics.

Although the Green Energy Act would help wean Ontario off coal (a major pollutant and leading source of greenhouse gas emissions) and onto clean energy alternatives like solar and wind, it doesn’t provide anything approaching the reliability of power produced from waterfalls, nuclear energy and fossil fuels. The Liberals also hope to create green-industry jobs in the process.

Conservative MPPs who spoke out against wind power at Queen’s Park, both at a protest outside and a debate inside the Legislature called for both a moratorium pending completion of the health study and a municipal veto on all new wind projects.

While there’s no doubt that critics of wind power generally and the Melancthon Wind Project in particular see potential health problems in the low-level noise the turbines generate, even they have tended to call for things short of a moratorium — primarily for much more space between turbines and the nearest homes.

And the government claims that Ontario’s regulations for locating turbines are among the most rigorous in the world and that while some people have honestly-held health concerns, there is as yet no scientific evidence to support claims that turbines are making neighbours sick. The government says it’s funding a multi-year independent study of the health effects and, if warranted, the setback standards can be altered.

As for allowing municipalities to veto wind projects, even if they meet all safety and environmental standards, that would probably mean no new projects, since as matters stand the municipalities would see themselves losing untold amounts of taxes and critics of wind power would undoubtedly far outnumber (and outshout) its supporters.

As we see it, municipalities would seldom, if ever, veto a wind project if the turbines were treated like new homes or industries.

After all, each turbine involves an investment of about $3 million, and a residence worth that would pay about $30,000 in property taxes. Similarly taxed, a 100-turbine wind farm would make a rural township rich beyond anyone’s dreams and make lower assessments on nearly homes a trivial concern (as well as lowering the neighbours’ taxes).

As for the nuclear option, it strikes us as amazing that the provincial Liberals and federal Conservatives haven’t come up with agreements of the sort reached on infrastructure and the “rescues” of General Motors and Chrysler.

All that’s really needed is an agreement similar to those reached between Ottawa and Queen’s Park that saw the two levels of government share the huge financial risks involved in Ontario’s first nuclear power plants, the Douglas Point and Pickering Generating Stations.

With Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) desperately in need of foreign orders, the best hope the federal agency has lies in at least one new nuclear plant being built in Ontario, and preferably one at each of the existing Darlington and Bruce power developments.

Such agreements would call for the new plants to be joint ventures of AECL and Ontario Power Generation and/or Bruce Power, and for Ottawa to subsidize any resultant cost overruns.