Tim Walz blocks Minnesota mining permits near Boundary Waters, defying Trump energy law

ST. PAUL, Aug. 20. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order Tuesday blocking new mining permits and leases near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, putting the state in direct conflict with legislation President Donald Trump signed in April. That law reversed a Biden-era order that had prohibited new mining leases near the Boundary Waters for 20 years. A significant portion of the land covered by Walz's order falls under federal jurisdiction.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the highest-ranking Minnesotan in Congress, called the move "stupid" and "dangerous." He told Fox News Digital that the order would "harm Minnesota" and "good union jobs in northern Minnesota," and that it would "put our national defense more at risk with our enemies, adversaries like Communist China." The legislation enabling new leases was sponsored by Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., and cleared both chambers before Trump signed it.

Walz's order targets copper and nickel specifically. Both metals are used in boat components, electric vehicle parts, military equipment, and commercial electronics. Northeastern Minnesota sits above the Duluth Complex, identified as the largest known untapped source of nickel and copper in North America.

Environmental groups and critics stake out opposing positions

Mining inside the Boundary Waters is already banned. Environmental groups have warned, according to MPR News, that extraction in the outer buffer zone still threatens the protected inner area. Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save The Boundary Waters, said 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," and praised Walz for acting to keep "toxic copper mining out of the headwaters."

Emmer dismissed that position as a "false argument." He argued that blocking domestic mining shifts extraction to Chinese and other foreign operators who, he said, apply less rigorous environmental standards, and that Minnesota operates under some of the strictest environmental laws in the world. Fox News Digital reported that Walz's office did not respond to a request for comment.