Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is following South Dakota’s Governor Larry Rhoden and several other states in sacrificing road integrity with temporary weight-limit increases for farm vehicles. Walz also includes logging vehicles in the relief order. Walz matches Rhoden’s 10% increase in allowed weight, which may not save farmers much money: ideally, a farmer (or a logger!) could make only 10 trips to town instead of 11, but each trip would use more fuel under the greater load.
But at least Governor Walz makes clear that the blame for the fuel-flation emergency lies squarely with Donald J. Trump:
Minnesotans are hurting from skyrocketing prices at the gas pump and grocery store caused by President Trump’s reckless war with Iran. And there is no end in sight.
The President’s war has directly raised diesel costs at a particularly challenging time. During this year’s harvest season, farmers and loggers across the state will rely on diesel to haul their crops and timber to market. High fuel costs will squeeze their wallets and hurt their bottom lines, adding to the uncertainty already caused by years of the President’s harmful trade wars.
…In recent days, bipartisan governors around the country—including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas—have invoked their executive authority to help ease the burden the President is placing on their citizens’ pocketbooks. It is necessary to do the same to give immediate relief to many Minnesotans wondering how they can afford the rising costs in every part of this economy [Governor Tim Walz, Emergency Executive Order 26-11, 2026.10.01].
Trump’s manufactured emergency is pushing Walz, Rhoden, and other governors to take actions that put roads at greater risk. Overworking our asphalt is not a sustainable solution to this emergency. We can put an end to this state of emergency by putting an end to Congress’s state of subservience to a demented dictator by electing Democrats to run Congress this November.