Exclusive — Sec. Burgum to Breitbart’s Matt Boyle: You Are ‘First Person’ to Interview Me Who Understands ‘Vertical Corridor’

Interior Secretary and Chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council Doug Burgum said Monday that American natural gas could move through Europe’s vertical corridor to help allies reduce their dependence on Russian energy and change the geopolitics of the region.

Burgum made the remarks during Breitbart News’s “Harnessing American Power” policy event on Monday, May 11, which focused on American energy dominance and artificial intelligence.

Boyle asked Burgum about President Donald Trump’s use of American energy as a diplomatic tool, including with Iran and Venezuela — though Boyle said Venezuela was “not so much anymore” an adversary situation — as well as with allies in Europe. Boyle said Greece is preparing to begin natural gas exploration off the coast of multiple islands early next year and added that, through the vertical corridor, natural gas is being shipped to Greece, up into Eastern Europe, and to Ukraine to “cut off the Russians” and stop the flow of Russian natural gas and oil into Europe.

“Well, I’m just smiling, Matt, because I’m so happy that you understand at a depth about the vertical corridor and what’s going on there,” Burgum said. “Because this is another one of these great changes that’s occurring.”

Burgum began by outlining Europe’s energy network, saying, “all the infrastructure for natural gas in Europe flows from Russia into Western Europe.”

Burgum said opposition to energy infrastructure and AI data centers should be scrutinized for outside influence.

“I would encourage everybody in the room to look hard when you think there’s organic protests around things like climate or natural gas pipelines or AI data centers, if you think that that stuff’s all organic and all local, it’s just not. It hasn’t been,” Burgum said.

Burgum pointed to Germany, saying the country “shut down all their nuclear plants and shut down all their coal plants,” and argued that in Germany’s multiparty system, the Green Party could gain leverage in coalition talks by making those closures a condition of joining a government. “Then they do that,” Burgum said, adding that Germany spent “a half a trillion so that’s $500 billion” on what he called its “green dream.” He said Germany produces “20 percent less electricity,” that “it costs 30 percent more than it did before,” and that the country is “de-industrializing.”

Burgum argued Russia was behind “some of that Green Party” recruiting through “Russia psyops,” saying Russia was “convincing everybody” to pursue green energy policies while offering a solution to buy natural gas from them.

Burgum also connected the energy discussion to artificial intelligence, arguing that AI facilities require more electricity and should not simply be described as data centers. “You’re not going to build an AI manufacturing plant. I wouldn’t call them a data center,” Burgum said, adding that “you’re actually manufacturing intelligence.” He said AI “requires energy addition, not energy subtraction,” and argued companies will not build that kind of infrastructure where energy prices are high. Burgum said that when Germany was not producing as much electricity as expected, it was buying electricity from “French nuclear” and “Polish coal plants.”

Burgum then said Boyle understood the vertical corridor before describing how U.S. natural gas could move through Europe and how Ukraine’s underground storage capacity could play a role.

“So what Matt referenced, which I think you’re the first person that’s interviewed me that actually understands what the vertical corridor is. We have an opportunity with U.S. natural gas to go up from Greece and Croatia down from Poland,” Burgum said. “Ukraine’s got massive underground storage capability for natural. They can store like a winter’s worth of natural gas. We could be filling it up all summer when gas prices, or natural gas prices are low.”

Burgum said he and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have met with European energy ministers, saying those most supportive of the United States are countries “captive to having to buy Russian gas,” and pointed to a Greek LNG offloading facility that had received 31 of its 35 LNG shipments from the United States. “They’d be like, we’d love to buy American natural gas,” Burgum said, adding that “one ship would heat 200,000 German homes for a year.”

Burgum tied the vertical corridor concept to the broader diplomatic value of American energy exports.

“And again, it’s back to that selling energy to our friends and allies so they don’t have to buy from our adversaries,” Burgum said.