Google is fighting in Arkansas federal court to keep the details of its $4 billion data center deal with a monopoly utility hidden from the public — while data center construction nationwide has surged 57% and communities from Indiana to Texas are pushing back against arrangements cut in the dark.
The secrecy in Arkansas is the pattern: Big Tech gets special arrangements from local governments and utilities, the details are concealed from ratepayers, and by the time residents find out, the deal is already done. Now the backlash is building — and it's bipartisan.
Entergy Arkansas, a monopoly utility, asked Judge Lee Rudofsky to issue a prior restraint blocking the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from publishing details of confidential documents the newspaper obtained about the company's arrangement to supply power to Google's West Memphis data center. The documents, which Entergy admitted were "disclosed in error" by the Arkansas Public Service Commission to a citizen who requested them under the state's Freedom of Information Act, revealed that Google will pay Entergy $526 million to cover roughly one-third of the $1.6 billion price tag for a 600-megawatt solar facility called Cypress Solar, according to the Democrat-Gazette.
Rudofsky, a Trump appointee, denied the request for a temporary restraining order. "It would take a lot to get me to do a prior restraint," he said, according to the El Dorado News Times. But Rudofsky also told Entergy's lawyer he thought the company had "a strong case" — the First Amendment just gave him pause. He called the matter one of "significant public concern," noting that Entergy is a monopoly and "the details of its business arrangement, especially with large users of power, for example … Google, are matters that an ordinary Arkansas citizen may very well want to be aware of," the Arkansas Times reported.
The Democrat-Gazette's executive editor, Lee Wolverton, called it straight: "Any attempt to impede that effort by using the courts to apply prior restraint to any news organization's First Amendment rights represents an attack on the very freedoms that define our country."
Meanwhile, in Michigan City, Indiana, the Common Council introduced a moratorium on future data center developments after residents raised hell about Google's Project Maize data center, which one local organizer said "slipped in through a zoning verification letter, no special use, no exemption publicly granted." The moratorium wouldn't affect the Google project already approved — it would just make sure the next one can't slide through the same way.
Nationally, the numbers tell the story. Data center construction spending hit $75 billion in July alone, up 57% year-over-year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And public opposition is rising just as fast: 41% of adults now oppose a data center within three miles of their home, up from 28% in January, a Politico poll found. A Heatmap survey in August showed 75% of registered voters disapprove of data centers in their communities.
President Trump has doubled down, writing on Truth Social that communities who reject data centers will end up "backwards and poor." Texas Gov. Greg Abbott went the other direction, issuing a statewide moratorium pausing construction of 1,800 data centers. Steve Bannon framed the fault line plainly: "It's far deeper than electrical bills — it's about the 'Broligarchs' who overplayed their hand and overstayed their welcome. You stand with them and you stand to lose."
The question neither party wants to answer: who pays the electric bill when a monopoly utility cuts a sweetheart deal with a trillion-dollar tech company — and why should ratepayers trust arrangements they aren't allowed to see?
