House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) sharply criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s move to block copper-nickel mining near the Boundary Waters, warning that the order would benefit foreign rivals such as China while eliminating union jobs in northern Minnesota’s Iron Range.
In an interview with host Matthew Boyle on – News Saturday, Emmer accused the outgoing governor of using his final months in office to target Minnesota’s mining industry and said the policy would push critical mineral production to nations with far weaker environmental standards.
“But this lame duck loser… named Tim Walz, he’s not only, I think, complicit in the fraud in this state, he’s completely incompetent and now he’s being spiteful,” Emmer said. “Literally as he’s leaving office in the next couple of months, what he’s doing is he’s trying to exercise executive authority from the governor’s office to end mining in Minnesota.”
Emmer argued that limiting domestic mining would leave the United States more dependent on hostile powers for key resources. “He is going to empower our adversaries like the Communist Party of China,” Emmer said. “We have the most stringent environmental laws on the face of the planet. If you’re going to end mining in the United States of America, you’re going to send it to places like China and Russia where they don’t care.”
The Minnesota Republican dismissed the environmental justification for the order, saying the debate is being framed incorrectly and that protecting clean air and water is not in dispute.
“We’re all environmentalists… We all appreciate clean water, clean air. We want to leave the planet in as good or better condition than we found it,” Emmer said. “But that’s not the issue, even though that’s what he wants to claim the issue is.”
According to Emmer, the mineral deposit at issue is one of the world’s most significant precious-metals discoveries, containing copper, nickel, and palladium used in products ranging from cell phones to automobiles. He said Walz’s action threatens hundreds, if not thousands, of well-paying union jobs and would also reduce money generated for Minnesota’s public school trust lands.
Emmer also took aim at Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, accusing Democrats who claim to champion working-class voters of governing as though their constituency is limited to “one downtown Minneapolis.”
Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN), who led the congressional repeal of the federal mining ban, called the order “an outright war on Northern Minnesota and our way of life.”
Walz signed Executive Order 26-10 on Tuesday, directing state agencies to halt permitting and leasing for nonferrous mining in the Rainy River Headwaters Watershed and to review 38 existing leases, including one held by Twin Metals, a subsidiary of Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta.
The order followed Congress’s April vote to repeal a 20-year federal ban on mining near the wilderness, a resolution Stauber sponsored that cleared the Senate 50-49 before President Donald Trump signed it. Walz dropped his 2026 reelection bid amid a sprawling social services fraud scandal.
“As far as my administration is concerned, the fight for the future of the Boundary Waters is over,” Walz said.
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