Entergy loses bid to block Google deal reporting
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Offices of the Arkansas-Democrat Gazette in Little Rock. Photo: Worth Sparkman/Axios
A federal judge denied Entergy Arkansas' request to block the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Times from publishing more details about its Google data center deal.
Why it matters: The ruling reinforces a high legal bar for companies seeking to stop news organizations from publishing government records they say were mistakenly released.
Catch up quick: On Monday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Google will pay Entergy Arkansas $526 million to help build a solar farm to power the data center, plus another $190 million for transmission upgrades.
- The details came from Arkansas Public Service Commission (PSC) documents obtained by resident Jessica Kivell through a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with the newspaper.
- In its complaint filed Tuesday, Entergy says the PSC "mistakenly disclosed" trade secrets that were protected by a services agreement between Entergy and Google's front business, Altitude Capital LLC.
Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky of Little Rock said the utility's request was the same as prior restraint of the organization's First Amendment rights, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
- Rudofsky said he recognized that part of the information the newspaper published could include trade secrets, but that did not trump the First Amendment's provision for a free press, the Arkansas Times reported.
Friction point: "The information first published in the Aug. 31 Arkansas Democrat Gazette contains a serious and careless mathematical error," Entergy's statement, shared by spokesperson Matt Ramsey after the judge's ruling, says. "The calculation accounts for only 12 months of payments rather than the full twenty-year term of the agreement — a fact that was known to the paper but not included in its math."
- The ADG story said Google's payments would cover only about a third of the total $1.6 billion cost of the Cypress Solar farm near Pine Bluff that's being built to support the data center.
- But Entergy's explanation says Google will end up paying more than $2.1 billion over the 20-year agreement, covering the cost of the solar farm.
- The company is demanding a correction from the paper.
The other side: "This statement operates on a fallacious and unchecked assumption that the figure in question was the result of a mathematical calculation," Lee Wolverton, executive editor of the newspaper, said in an emailed statement to Axios late Wednesday.
- "This is untrue. Entergy never inquired with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about the source of the number. The figure in question, $526 million, was cited in documents obtained in the records request … Entergy, in fact, performs calculations in its statement that we have not seen substantiated by the records."
- Wolverton did not directly address Entergy's demand for a correction.
- "Our duty as a news organization and the duty of all news organizations is to inform the public as fully as possible about issues of high public interest," he said.
The Arkansas Times never had access to the documents and it was unclear why Entergy believed it did, the publication's editor-in-chief, Austin Gelder, wrote in a statement to Axios.
Reality check: Entergy has not publicly revealed the rate it will charge Google.
What's next: Rudofsky said in a docket entry that he would set a schedule for briefs regarding a request for a preliminary injunction after both sides confer.