LISTENING to Gov. Joe Manchin State of the State speech on Wednesday  produced in me an odd sense of relief. Furthermore, the feeling grew throughout the speech.

I couldn't figure out why.

Finally, as the governor moved from one subject to another, it hit me: He actually knows what he's talking about.

And so, on every issue the governor raised, did House Speaker Rick Thompson, D-Wayne, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, and every other person present in the House chambers.

That was the difference. They know West Virginia.

That was what was refreshing.

West Virginians have spent the better part of a year having their fates shaped by people who don't know the state - and who clearly don't think it would be useful to learn anything.

I don't want to be unduly hard on the Obama administration. All new working groups have learning curves.

But this group thought it knew everything it needed to know from the get-go.

President Obama decided that West Virginians should stop burning coal, and that raising the energy taxes and utility bills of people who are 49th in per capita income would break us of that habit.

The new administration also decided that West Virginians should stop mountaintop removal mining. So Obama's Environmental Protection Agency summarily announced that it would suspend permits - in one case, a permit that had been studied for a decade - to clear that up.

What we have in Washington now is people who don't know how West Virginians make a living, don't know where our electric power comes from, don't know how our county commissions balance their budgets, don't know how we fund local schools, don't know how dependent the state budget is on coal revenue . . . .

And they don't think there's any need to learn anything about any of it, either.

Those who favor the administration's policies primly told West Virginians we should go back to underground mining, thus revealing ignorance of 1) the fact that some seams can't be mined that way; and 2) the fact that underground mining is more miserable, more dangerous and more expensive.

I question whether some of the new sheriffs at the EPA even knew what an ephemeral stream is, or why they should know.

The EPA's concern, observers explained patiently to the natives, is the environment, not the economy. The agency has a duty to safeguard leaves from smog, and insects from mining. (As if a state full of hunters and fishermen have no interest in such matters.)

West Virginians' livelihoods, it was made clear, were not the agency's concern, nor was the state's economy.

All that economy stuff was somebody else's concern.

Well, Wednesday night, all those somebody elses were sitting in the House chamber as the state prepared to begin its annual business meeting.

The difference in the knowledge of officialdom was striking.

Lord knows, the West Virginia Legislature has its faults.

State officials can and in the past have been venal, self-serving, math-impaired and misguided.

Certainly, legislators past have clocked the state's legal climate, tax policy, economy, workers compensation system, pensions, health care benefits, etc., etc., etc.

But state officials' strong point was more evident to me this year.

West Virginia's policymakers know the people who live up the road, know how they make a living, know what they can't afford, know the problems local governments face, know what the loss of an employer would mean, know why some West Virginia workers have "Cadillac" health plans . . . .

In short, state policymakers know a thousand times more than distant, ill-informed - frankly, uncaring - bureaucrats in Washington would even think to ask.

The policymakers who are closest to us are vastly more likely to produce nuanced policies West Virginians can live with.

Supposedly sophisticated elites, on the other hand, can put Americans in for really bad governance.

I'll keep my aversion and distrust of big government. It's often arrogant and clueless about  things that matter.

I'll stick with my belief that the government that governs least governs best.

The notion that a few hundred ignorant experts in a far-off capital know what should happen in counties all over the United States is ridiculous on its face.

No matter how exasperated I get with the Legislature, I won't forget that now.

Maurice is editorial page editor of the Daily Mail. She may be reached at 348-4802 or by e-mail at ha...@dailymail.com.