West Virginia reported a record low in mine deaths during 2005. Sadly, the first month of 2006 has already witnessed a reversal of this achievement, and two tragic mine disasters have unfolded before the anxious eyes of a nation. The latest mining catastrophe occurred last Thursday, when a conveyor belt caught fire at a Melville coal mine. Two miners were lost in the blaze. Their deaths marked the thirteenth and fourteenth 2006 casualties in West Virginia due to a coal mining accident.

The tragedies are heartbreaking, to say the least. The prayers of a nation go out to the new widows and fatherless children who have been left behind.

Unfortunately, the situation already seems to be degenerating in a way that has become typical for our generation. We, the American people, have big hearts for those in trouble, but we are also too quick to entrust problems to the federal government. Such a state of affairs has led to more bureaucracy, diluted voter input, and fewer sensible solutions.

Federal officials, of course, are all too willing to take on any problem that the American people throw their way. Consider the speed with which federal officials took to the airwaves on Saturday afternoon. Congressman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) urged: "The government has responsibility here to step in and to ensure we are vigilant in our protection of the miners’ health and safety." His sentiments were echoed by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va), who stated, "The grief is unbelievable and I don’t think it’s gonna be left alone in legislation." Not to be outdone, a Senate Appropriations subcommittee swiftly scheduled hearings on mine safety.

From all appearances, new government regulations are needed. But why must these regulations be federal ones? Why are local or state laws automatically deemed insufficient?

Instead, many have already assumed—without asking—that federal intervention is needed.

Default reliance on the federal government has become the norm. Few Americans realize that such a mindset would have been considered anathema to our nation’s Founders. To the contrary, the founding generation, by and large, distrusted the centralization of power in a national government. They preferred to leave government power close to home, where citizens could have a greater influence on the legislative process. They deliberately created a "federalist" form of government in which the national government would be delegated certain powers over foreign affairs and interstate commerce, but the states would retain all other authority not expressly delegated to the national government.

The founding generation considered such a division of power between state and local authorities to be an important safeguard for freedom.

Consider the situation in West Virginia. The national government should take responsibility for at least one aspect of the problem. To the degree that Congress has discouraged production of alternative sources of energy such as oil or nuclear power, increased pressure has been placed on coal-producing states such as West Virginia. The federal government bears responsibility for helping to relieve that pressure. One state (or a handful of states) should not be responsible for the energy needs of the entire country.

On the other hand, the federal government can’t efficiently administrate every aspect of the mines—nor should it try to do so. West Virginia is the second-largest producer of coal in America. Its residents are impacted by mine safety (and mine profits) on a daily basis. The voters of that state, as represented by their officials in the state legislature, are thus best equipped to determine what they need. Moreover, as the voters most impacted by the issue, they should be the ones who determine the appropriate balance between cost and safety.

Furthermore, citizens in another coal-producing state, such as Wyoming, might view the safety versus profit equation differently. Those voters should be free to make such choices for themselves. Except to the degree that a national energy policy is reasonably affected, it is hard to image what good can come of giving voters in non-coal-producing states a seat at the table in this particular policy discussion.

In short, we are robbing West Virginia voters of their right to self-governance if we force them to negotiate solutions with citizens in other regions of the country—voters who will know little about the ins and outs of coal mining. Indeed, a few firefighters in West Virginia are already complaining that they were hindered by federal regulations during last week’s rescue effort.

For a country that claims to love democratic principles, local governance should come naturally. It’s a pity that West Virginia voters will be forced to succumb to the solutions dreamt up by a far-away national government when they could probably devise better rules on their own.

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