After Gutting Park Budgets, Data Center Doug Burgum Turns to a Blackstone AI Power Company to Prop Up Yellowstone
HELENA, MT – After more than a year of slashing park staff and funding, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is now celebrating a $105 million gift to Yellowstone National Park from Tallgrass, an offshoot of private equity giant Blackstone, who is an infrastructure portfolio company building a mega gas-fired AI data center power hub near Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Burgum joined Blackstone and Tallgrass executives at the Old Faithful Inn with Yellowstone Forever, the park’s official nonprofit partner, to sign the deal. The private donation comes after Burgum and the administration have repeatedly attacked, undermined, and reprioritized park priorities for Trump’s D.C. vanity projects. Initial responses to the mega donation have been critical of the agreement Burgum signed, which includes corporate branding beneficial to the secretive and controversial private equity firm with deep ties to the Trump administration and other elected officials who are pushing forward a controversial 1,150 MW gas-powered energy hub for AI data centers. Yellowstone Park alone faces an estimated $1.2 billion in deferred maintenance, and parks nationwide are crumbling under Burgum’s watch.
"Trumpeting a mega donation from a private equity firm, with untold sums of money invested in speculative data centers and AI development, in a desperate attempt to curry publicity and favor is a cheap fix to the extensive park problems Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has created,” said Jayson O’Neill, Save Our Parks spokesperson. “Public land and park supporters have been warning about Burgum’s fail-by-design plan to sell off public lands and privatize national parks for over a year, and this sure seems like another step toward privatization. Burgum has taken a chainsaw to park staffing and funding with draconian DOGE cuts, while illegally redirecting park funds and reprioritizing critical park projects to make way for Trump’s D.C. vanity projects. Now, Americans’ beloved national parks are being forced to rely on private philanthropic donations to get by.”
Additional Background:
Blackstone’s Tallgrass arm, formerly a publicly traded midstream energy infrastructure company, is now developing an AI data center energy hub in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Tallgrass announced the 1,150 MW hub will run on Mitsubishi Power natural gas turbines, fed by a gas line owned by its subsidiary, Rockies Express Pipeline.
Burgum met with Blackstone executives on July 25, 2025.
Burgum has spent over a year implementing his fail-by-design plan to sell off public lands and privatize national parks.
Parks across the country are severely understaffed due to Burgum’s mismanagement and his prioritization of Trump’s D.C. vanity projects.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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