Google’s filings with Nebraska’s Department of Water, Energy, and Environment have black boxes where the electricity and water figures should be. The boxes sit on top of live text. Highlight one, copy it, paste it somewhere else, and Lincoln’s 10/11 NOW found the numbers underneath. Google’s Lincoln data center drew 52.65 megawatts at peak and used about 13.3 million gallons of water over the past year. Its Papillion site used 548 million. The three Nebraska sites expect roughly $118 million in 2025 tax refunds between them.
The leak is the funny part. The claim under the black box teaches more. Google marked these figures trade secrets at all three sites, citing state statute. But it doesn’t treat Nebraska water use as a secret. Over the summer it self-reported that its Nebraska data centers consumed about 732 million gallons in 2025. What it guarded was the split by site. A statewide total protects a reputation. A site number informs a decision, and every decision that matters here is made about one building by one town: the rezoning, the water permit, the tax deal.
Look at what the split shows. Two Google buildings about 50 miles apart report water figures roughly 40 times apart. The gap could come from size, age, or how far Lincoln is into its ramp. Google’s head of infrastructure told Flatwater Free Press the company uses evaporative cooling or closed-loop, air-cooled chillers “depending on water availability.” Google makes that choice building by building. A statewide total averages it away. Only the site number tells Lincoln what kind of neighbor it got, or tells Sarpy County what to ask for before the next expansion.
Nebraska wrote its new rule at exactly that level. Gov. Jim Pillen’s July executive order requires each data center to self-report its draw on water, power, and local infrastructure, with reports due Sept. 30. The statutes underneath it let a company mark its own figures as trade secrets. A self-report the reporter can redact isn’t disclosure. It’s a request, and the public got an answer only because of a formatting mistake.
Google’s strongest objection is a real one. Peak power is more than a utility bill. Fifty-two megawatts in a 288,530-square-foot building says roughly how much compute sits inside, and a sales-tax refund lets anyone with a calculator estimate what the company spent on equipment there. A competitor would like those numbers, and Google has a legitimate interest in keeping them. Grant all of that. Then look at who already has them. The utility that sells Google its power knows the peak load to the kilowatt. The state that issues the refund knows the refund.
The redaction didn’t keep these numbers from the parties that do business with Google. It kept them from the parties that vote on Google.
The refund settles the question. A company can keep its costs private as long as it pays them. Agate LLC, the Lincoln entity, expects $55.8 million back on its 2025 taxes. Once the public underwrites a building, what that building takes from the public’s water and grid isn’t a trade secret. It’s the other half of the deal. Nebraska could make site-level reporting the condition of the exemption and let each company choose: publish the numbers, or pay the tax.
This year Nebraskans learned what Google’s buildings take because someone dragged a cursor across a black box. Next year it should be the price of the refund, not a lucky break.