MADISON (CBS 58) — Data centers are one of the most controversial developments of our time. Some want a moratorium, while others feel they have economic benefits.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum recently released a detailed report about the topic. The report looks into virtually every aspect of large-scale data centers, the potential economic benefits and the impact on utilities like electricity and water.

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The report found that power costs are the biggest issue. However, it also indicates that Wisconsin lags behind our neighboring states in the development of large-scale data centers.

“States like Illinois and Ohio have built many more data centers than we have in Wisconsin, and then there are other states nationally like Virginia and Texas that have built even more than that,” Jason Stein, the president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said.

The report also found the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, which regulates utilities, has taken steps to make sure ordinary people and businesses aren’t stuck footing the bill for the increase in power the data centers will need.

Transmission lines are a different story. Regulations surrounding those types of developments are up to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“There have been sort of statements in principle made by the Trump administration that ordinary ratepayers will be protected from increases in transmission rates due to data centers,” Stein said.

In other words, those regulations are a work in progress.

When it comes to the economic impact of these data centers, they do create jobs, and more than are usual for the economy we are currently living in, according to the report.

“You can still see hundreds of jobs, permanent jobs, thousands of construction jobs and billions of dollars of tax base brought into communities,” Stein said.

For example, the large-scale data center in Port Washington is projected to create more than 1,000 permanent jobs, and the Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant is projected to create more than 550 jobs just in phase one, with the company saying there will be more employment opportunities created during phase two.

While the construction jobs are temporary, they too have an impact on these communities.

“They are temporary, but they are temporary over a period of years,” Stein said. “You know, several years. It is still a longer time frame than you would typically think of for a construction project.”

Another concern is water use. The Wisconsin Policy Forum says the state uses far less water than it did in the 1990s as manufacturing declined. However, a data center's total water footprint depends largely on the energy source used to power it.

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“There is certainly going to be some indirect water use by data centers to generate the power that they need,” Stein said. “We do not believe that that will, at least with the current crop of three data centers, put us as a state beyond using the amount of water that we used 20 years ago.”

If you would like to read the entire report, click here.