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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is catching heat for defying President Donald Trump on a key energy policy.
The progressive Midwestern leader issued an executive order on Tuesday blocking mining permits and leases near a swath of land in northeast Minnesota called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a significant portion of which is under federal jurisdiction.
That’s despite President Donald Trump signing legislation in April that reversed a Biden administration-era order blocking new mining leases near the Boundary Waters for a period of 20 years.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the highest-ranking Minnesotan in Congress, called Walz’s move “stupid” and “dangerous.”
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order banning critical mineral mining in part of his state after President Donald Trump reversed such a ban earlier this year. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
“This lame duck loser is trying to make us more energy and mineral-dependent on our adversaries,” Emmer told Fox News Digital.
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He said the order would “harm Minnesota, good union jobs in northern Minnesota,” and “put our national defense more at risk with our enemies, adversaries like Communist China.”
The legislation, which passed the House and Senate before getting to Trump’s desk, was led by Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn.
Walz’s order focuses on the mining of metals like copper and nickel, which have a variety of uses including boat components, electric vehicle components, military equipment, and commercial electronics.
A lake within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is seen on Sept. 4, 2019, in Ely, Minnesota. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Northeastern Minnesota is home to the largest known untapped source of nickel and copper in North America, called the Duluth Complex.
Emmer argued that a failure to tap into those resources would put the U.S. at a disadvantage to China’s metal mining industry.
Mining is already banned inside the Boundary Waters, but environmental groups who hailed Walz’s order have warned that mining in the protected lands outside its buffer zone still risks harming that inner area, according to MPR News.
“The Federal Government sold out our canoe country earlier this year by stripping away protections that took hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans’ voices and years of work to secure, all while ignoring science and the will of the public,” Save The Boundary Waters executive director Ingrid Lyons said in a statement.
“Now, our Governor is doing right by Minnesota by pulling out all of the stops to keep toxic copper mining out of the headwaters of the Boundary Waters, while also calling on our state’s legislature to finish the job permanently. Thank you, Governor, for your actions that save the Boundary Waters today, and for building a foundation from which to protect it for generations to come.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., speaks during a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 28, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
But when asked about environmental groups’ support, Emmer dismissed it as a “false argument.”
“Every one of us is an environmentalist. I make this point, so nobody gets to claim the high ground. It’s like somebody saying, ‘I’m a better conservative than you.’ No, we all care about our environment. We all want clean water. We all want clean air,” he said.
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“What you’re literally saying is, ‘I’d rather have the Chinese and other adversaries mine in the old-fashioned ways and not care about leaving the world in a better condition, than allow us to do it right here in Minnesota, where we have one of the top precious metal mines in the world’…and we have the most stringent environmental laws in the world, I would argue, that are going to ensure that it’s done safely, and it protects not only the people doing the work, but it protects the environment.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office for a response.
