A federal judge in Arkansas has refused to stop two news outlets from publishing the details of a leaked Entergy Arkansas contract tied to Google's West Memphis data center campus, rejecting the utility's request to remove articles built on confidential records that were accidentally released to the public. The ruling clears the way for continued reporting on a deal that could raise monthly electric bills for hundreds of thousands of Arkansas customers.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky denied Entergy Arkansas' motion for a temporary restraining order against the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Times on Wednesday, according to News From The States. The judge found that barring the outlets from publishing already-released public documents would amount to unconstitutional prior restraint under the First Amendment. As Action News 5 reported, the federal judge said the First Amendment gave the court significant pause before granting Entergy's request.
The records at the center of the dispute surfaced almost by accident. According to the Arkansas Advocate, central Arkansas nurse and citizen activist Jessica Kivell filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Arkansas Public Service Commission, which mistakenly released unredacted trade secrets before she passed them along to reporters. Entergy Arkansas has said some of the records were released by accident and remain confidential trade secrets, per the same Action News 5 report.
What Google Is Actually Paying For
The leaked documents put real numbers behind Google's power arrangement for its five-building, 1,200-acre campus off Bollinger Road in West Memphis, a project Action News 5 notes carries an estimated cost of $1.6 billion. Google will pay Entergy $526 million to build a solar farm to help power the data center, covering about one-third of that infrastructure cost, the outlet reported. Beyond that, newly disclosed records reviewed by Axios show Google agreed to pay an additional $190 million specifically for transmission upgrades needed to connect the campus to the regional grid, pushing the company's total infrastructure commitment to $716 million.
The power source itself has a name and a location: Cypress Solar, a 600-megawatt solar field paired with a 350-megawatt battery storage system in Jefferson County. Construction Review reports the facility is slated to connect to Entergy's White Bluff substation and begin operating by late 2028. Entergy and Google plan to cover the remaining two-thirds of the broader project's cost through a rate rider on customer bills, which Action News 5 pegs at nearly $6 a month.
The Bill Increase, By The Numbers
Filings submitted to the Arkansas Public Service Commission indicate residential electric bills could climb between $5.77 and $8.35 a month by year five under that rider financing, according to The Load Report. Entergy maintains the overall Google agreement will still deliver $1.1 billion in net benefits to Arkansas ratepayers over 20 years, the same filings show. Entergy Arkansas serves roughly 730,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers across 63 counties, all of whom fall under rate rider adjustments approved by state regulators.
Notably, the picture looks different just across the state line. Entergy Mississippi has announced that its rates will remain unchanged despite higher summer demand, with new data center revenue helping keep customer rates flat there, per Action News 5's reporting.
A Records Fight Years In The Making
The leak did not happen in a vacuum. It followed a state court lawsuit filed in June 2026 by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and reporter Sydney Sasser against the Arkansas Public Service Commission, seeking to compel disclosure of unredacted special rate contracts between Entergy and Google, according to Oklahoma Energy Today. Legal experts following the case have pointed to the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Florida Star v. B.J.F., which held that the First Amendment protects a media outlet's right to publish truthful information of public concern lawfully obtained from government agencies even when officials disclosed it by mistake, as discussed by the Volokh Conspiracy. The judge has not yet issued a final ruling on the broader case beyond denying the temporary restraining order.
The dispute lands amid a much larger national surge in electricity demand tied to computing infrastructure. U.S. Department of Energy estimates cited in state regulatory proceedings show data centers consumed roughly 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023, with demand projected to climb to between 6.7% and 12% of total U.S. power generation by 2028, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Arkansas lawmakers moved to capture more of that growth in 2025, passing Act 548 to expand tax incentives for what the law defines as qualified large data centers, covering multi-facility campuses linked across separate sites by high-speed fiber, per Arkansas Business.
Where The Project Stands
Hoodline first reported Google's plans for the five-building, $1.6 billion campus in September 2025, and later covered Google's $25 million community energy fund aimed at helping low-income Crittenden County residents with home weatherization alongside Entergy. The rate-hike filings and the federal court fight over publishing them mark the latest turn in a project that has grown more expensive, and more contested, since it was first announced. Questions over how utility commissions handle confidential corporate agreements, and whether ordinary ratepayers should shoulder costs tied to a private company's infrastructure needs, remain unresolved and are expected to continue playing out before the Arkansas Public Service Commission.
