Ending Daylight Savings Time? Making It Permanent?

[lpetrich]

Here in the US, the clocks were shifted forward 1 hour, going from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time.

 Daylight saving time

Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (United States and Canada), or summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks to make better use of the longer daylight available during summer, so that darkness falls at a later clock time.[1][2] The typical implementation of DST is to set clocks forward by one hour in spring or late winter, and to set clocks back by one hour to standard time in the autumn (or fall in North American English, hence the mnemonic: "spring forward and fall back").

DST is not usually observed near the Equator, where sunrise and sunset times do not vary enough to justify it; conversely, it is often not observed in places at high latitudes where a one-hour clock shift would provide little benefit because of the wide variations in sunrise and sunset times.

"Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, was the first city in the world to enact DST, on 1 July 1908" - it was then widely adopted around World War I. More recently, however, many countries have revoked it.

Two US states, Arizona and Hawaii, and some US territories are on Standard Time all year, and many other states have considered either joining them or else doing permanent DST.

 

[lpetrich]

Permanent daylight saving time? Where efforts to ‘lock the clocks’ stand | The Hill - 03/11/23 10:00 AM ET

Referring to Sen. Marco Rubio's Sunshine Protection Act of that year.

A similar bill introduced by Rubio last year passed with unanimous support in the Senate, but it wasn’t as well-received in the House. Lawmakers argued other matters were more important or asked for additional research into and discussion regarding the bill. Others expressed concerns regarding the impact the move could have on areas that rely on tourism or those with large farming communities.

Daylight saving 2023: Why making DST permanent was tried – and failed - 11/03/23 6:30 AM ET

In March, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act which is designed to do just that. Despite a rare show of support from senators of both political parties, the measure has been stalled after it was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

The bill:
S.582 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
17 cosponsors, 11 original, in both parties

H.R.1279 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
34 cosponsors, 11 original, mostly Republicans

Some other such bills:

• S.670 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Sunshine Protection Act of 2019 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 13 cosponsors, 1 original
• H.R.1556 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Sunshine Protection Act of 2019 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 23 cosponsors, 1 original
• H.R.1601 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Daylight Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 23 cosponsors
• H.R.2389 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): To allow States to elect to observe year-round daylight saving time, and for other purposes. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - no cosponsors
• H.R.214 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Daylight Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 16 cosponsors
• H.R.5826 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): To allow States to elect to observe year-round daylight saving time, and for other purposes. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 1 cosponsor
• H.R.5906 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): DAYLIGHT Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 2 cosponsors, 1 original
• H.R.69 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 48 cosponsors
• H.R.364 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Daylight Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - no cosponsors
• H.R.1561 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): DAYLIGHT Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress - 2 cosponsors, all original

Both Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) have been outspoken in support of doing away with clock changes, which happen twice a year except in most of Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said in 2022 after a previous iteration of the Sunshine Protection Act passed the Senate before running into a brick wall in the House.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Americans want more sunshine and less depression — people in this country, all the way from Seattle to Miami, want the Sunshine Protection Act,” Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray added at the time.

 

[lpetrich]

Daylight saving: What if we stopped changing the clocks? - 02/25/24 10:20 AM ET
and
An end to ‘springing forward’? Laws to abolish daylight saving time proposed in these states | The Hill - 03/09/24 10:00 AM ET

noting
Daylight Saving Time Starts On Sunday: Here Are The States Looking To Stop Changing The Clocks
State lawmakers are divided on whether to do year-round DST or year-round ST.

Federal law under the Uniform Time Act allows states to observe year-round standard time, as Arizona and Hawaii have done, though it prohibits states from switching to permanent daylight saving time.

A separate bipartisan bill would enable states to permanently switch to daylight saving time, though that bill is held up in committee.

Which states are considering what:

• DST: AK, AL, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, KY, LA, MI, MS, MT, NC, NJ, OH, UT, WA, WY
• ST: MA, VT
• Both: ME, MN, NY, OK OR, PA, SC, TN

From the March 9 article:

Oregon lawmakers made a last push to join them this year, with the state Senate passing a bill to end daylight saving time in favor of year-round standard time. The bill, which would have also required California and Washington to follow suit, stalled in the House on Tuesday, however.

They should make it Oregon-only, and not expect anything from other states.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Funny fact, I have no idea if we are currently in DST or DST just ended. All I know is I woke up one hour early on Saturday because apparently the designers of my bedroom clock programmed DST into it... but not the Leap Year.

 

[bilby]

The easiest way to tell for certain whether a given East Coast Australian is a Queenslander is to ask them to adjust the clock in their car.

If they can't do it, they must be from the state without DST.

 

[TV and credit cards]

And here I thought I finally got a good night's sleep. Once I figured out what was going on, I was dragging ass all day.

 

[Ford]

The easiest way to tell for certain whether a given East Coast Australian is a Queenslander is to ask them to adjust the clock in their car.

If they can't do it, they must be from the state without DST.

Here in Arizona, we don't have Daylight Savings Time. We have plenty of daylight and don't need to conserve any. It can get a little wonky when you work for a company that's based somewhere else. Previously we had to sync up with San Francisco, so our work schedule would shift twice a year. Fortunately the don't make us do that anymore. On the plus side (for me, at least), awhile back I had a recording session with Bob Uecker (famous baseball player/TV and movie personality) and Warner Brothers forgot about the time change. He showed up to the studio an hour early, and WB in LA didn't have their studio time booked. So what do you when that happens? You sit there and shoot the shit with Mr. Baseball for an hour!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

My biggest issue is this whole fall back, spring forward BS. Who "falls back"... I mean, other than people that slip on a banana peel? People fall forward!

 

[Politesse]

Perhaps we're tripping because they keep dangling the issue in front of California voters and then yanking it away. C'mon legislators, it has been six years. Ballot initiatives are such a time wasting distraction...

May Prop 1 meet the same fate.

 

[Derec]

Daylight saving. It's neither a plural nor a possessive.


For the record, I would prefer daylight saving time be made permanent, but certainly we need to end this asinine time changing.

 

[Derec]

My biggest issue is this whole fall back, spring forward BS. Who "falls back"... I mean, other than people that slip on a banana peel? People fall forward!

"Fall back" is a well known idiom in English. It does not mean to literally slip and fall. And I guess next you'll be telling us it should be "spring back" as in girls' gymnastics. Who are you, Jonah Ryan?

 

[Playball40]

My biggest issue is this whole fall back, spring forward BS. Who "falls back"... I mean, other than people that slip on a banana peel? People fall forward!

"Fall back" is a well known idiom in English. It does not mean to literally slip and fall. And I guess next you'll be telling us it should be "spring back" as in girls' gymnastics. Who are you, Jonah Ryan?

it's so people can remember which direction the clock goes. Fall - back an hour. Sping - forward an hour.

 

[Playball40]

My only thought is I hate DST. I wake up well with the sun.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

My biggest issue is this whole fall back, spring forward BS. Who "falls back"... I mean, other than people that slip on a banana peel? People fall forward!

"Fall back" is a well known idiom in English. It does not mean to literally slip and fall. And I guess next you'll be telling us it should be "spring back" as in girls' gymnastics. Who are you, Jonah Ryan?

I'm someone being facetious.

 

[Toni]

I love love love love love daylight savings time but then, I'm not a lark and do not rise early of my own accord. I love the additional hour of sunlight later in the day when I am awake to enjoy it.

But then, I've always adjusted fairly easily to the changes. I realize some people do not but for me, it's just heading off to bed a bit earlier when we spring forward and getting up by the clock a bit later than usual. But most of the time, on Sundays, I wake up when I wake up so.....

It was harder to change the dogs' schedules, when we had dogs, as they wanted to still eat at their 'normal' time---or an hour or two earlier if they could get it.

 

[Patooka]

The easiest way to tell for certain whether a given East Coast Australian is a Queenslander is to ask them to adjust the clock in their car.

If they can't do it, they must be from the state without DST.

It is quite literally the only thing I'll give Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen credit for.

 

[bilby]

Who "falls back"... I mean, other than people that slip on a banana peel?

Armed forces faced with an overwhelming enemy force?

 

[lostone]

The time adjustment is annoying, but no more than that. Could we do without it? Of course we could. The salient question is does it benefit more people than it hurts.

 

[bilby]

Daylight saving. It's neither a plural nor a possessive.


For the record, I would prefer daylight saving time be made permanent, but certainly we need to end this asinine time changing.

Meh. Everyone should be required to always use UTC for everything.

I don't particularly care whether my shift runs from 06:28 to 15:08 UTC+10, or from 20:28 to 05:08 UTC. It's the exact same shift at the exact same time. If the sun rises at 20:00 and sets at 08:00, why does that matter?

People would get used to it within a few years; It's no bigger a mental shift than decimalising the currency, or moving to the metric system.

 

[Shadowy Man]

My biggest issue is this whole fall back, spring forward BS. Who "falls back"... I mean, other than people that slip on a banana peel? People fall forward!

I guess you prefer “autumn”?