Entergy Arkansas lost a federal court ruling this week in the utility’s fight to stop news reports and further dissemination of documents about how much Google was paying the utility over construction of a massive $4 billion data center at West Memphis, Arkansas.
The utility went to court after documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to a Little Rock woman were shared with Arkansas newspaper. Entergy sought a restraining order against Jessica Kivell who received the documents after a FOIA request was made to the Arkansas Public Service Commission. She was named in the lawsuit in addition to the Arkansas Times, its managing editor Byron Tate, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and its reporter Sydney Sasser.
According to KARK news in Little Rock, the suit was filed and heard on Tuesday before Judge Lee P. Rudofsky. The Tuesday evening hearing was to determine if a temporary restraining order was needed to end the use of the documents by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Times.
The Democrat-Gazette originally reported the documents reveal Google will pay $526 million to Energy to build the Cypress Solar power station in Jefferson County to help power Google’s $4 billion data center. This is approximately one-third of the $1.6 billion estimated cost to build the solar-and-battery facility.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday, prior to the judge’s ruling, that the company intends to pay 100% of the costs.
“Google is fully committed to covering 100% of the power and infrastructure costs for our West Memphis data center,” the spokesperson said. “While upfront payments total $526 million, our ongoing monthly rates over the 20-year agreement will completely fund our operational footprint. Entergy’s regulatory filings demonstrate that this project will actually lower overall system costs, providing more than $1.1 billion in net benefits to Arkansas residents.”
