Tired of daylight saving time?

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Tired of daylight saving time?

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Post by elvis4life »

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tired-of-daylight-saving-time-lawmakers-look-to-lock-the-clock/ar-BBzMsoV

Tired of daylight saving time, lawmakers look to 'lock the clock'

© Jen Fifield/The Pew Charitable Trusts/TNS Ray Harwood is fascinated by time. The Arizona resident is one of a few hobbyists who have been tracking the movement across the country to abolish daylight saving time, or keep it year-round.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — In every room of his stucco two-story house in this Phoenix suburb, Ray Harwood has a clock, or two or three — digital, satellite or with a pendulum. He keeps the time on his wrist, on counters, desks and walls, and even on his bedroom ceiling.

Harwood, 63, has a slight obsession with time and an opinion that we should stop messing with it.

He lives in one of the two states — the other is Hawaii — that don't change their clocks twice a year for daylight saving time. And Harwood has started to wonder why other states do. In the last few years, he has become one of just a few hobbyists who are tracking the movement in states to either abolish daylight saving time or stay on it year-round.

The movement to "lock the clock" is growing as more research indicates that the biannual ritual of changing the time is not only annoying to some but harmful to public health, productivity and safety. This year, about half of states have considered or are considering time-related bills.

Bills to abolish daylight saving time have been introduced for years, and have always faced opposition, including from sport and retail industries that say the extra hour of evening sun in the summer brings them more business.

But in the past few years, more states are considering another idea: If everyone likes evening sunlight, why not stay on daylight saving time year-round? Bills have been introduced this year in at least six states — including Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming — that would effectively move the states to the next time zone to the east.

Under federal law, all states that choose to participate in daylight saving time must do so on the schedule set by the federal government, moving an hour ahead on the second Sunday in March and moving an hour back on the first Sunday in November.

If a state wants to be on daylight saving time year-round, it needs to change time zones. To do this, a state would need to ask Congress to approve a law, or ask the U.S. secretary of transportation for permission. Then, the state would opt out of daylight saving time and stay on the new schedule year-round. On both coasts this year, state lawmakers say they want to team up with lawmakers in other states to ask the federal government for approval.

Some lawmakers who have proposed bills, such as Republican state Rep. Peter Lucido in Michigan, say they don't care which way their states go, as long as they stop changing the clocks. After Lucido's bill to abolish daylight saving time faced opposition, he changed it to keep it in place year-round.

"I said either way you want to go, I'm fine with it. But let's keep the clocks locked," he said. "Set it and forget it." Countries began adopting daylight saving time in the early 1900s as a way to save energy during World War I. The U.S. followed the trend, passing a law in 1918. In 2008, a study by the U.S. Department of Energy showed that, even though nearly 100 years had passed, daylight saving time still helps save energy.

But other researchers have found that it doesn't. And more people have started questioning the ritual in the last decade as studies have indicated that changing the clocks coincides with negative health effects such as increases in heart attacks and strokes.

The time change in the spring reduces the amount of sleep people get overnight on that Saturday by an average of 40 minutes, which affects behavior the following Monday, according to research co-authored by Christopher Barnes, an associate professor of management at the University of Washington. The loss of sleep does not equal a full hour because the data included the two states that do not participate in daylight saving time, and because some people may change their sleeping habits because of the time change, Barnes said.

Barnes said studies he has co-authored have found that on "Sleepy Monday," work injuries increase, time spent browsing the internet while at work increases, and peoples' ability to be aware of the decisions they are making drops. In his latest study, he found that judges hand out stricter sentences on that Monday — something he says signals that the change makes people "more emotionally reactive."

"It wreaks havoc on all sorts of issues," he said.

Similarly, Austin Smith, an economist at Miami University in Ohio, found in a study last year that fatal car crashes increase by 5 to 6.5 percent in the days immediately following the change.

There are some firm believers in the benefits of daylight saving time, such as David Prerau, author of the 2005 book "Seize the Daylight." But while he supports it, he said people wouldn't like having it year-round.

When states go off daylight saving time in November, turning the clock back makes morning come an hour later, allowing for lighter, warmer mornings. If states that make the switch were to stay on daylight saving time year-round, winter mornings would be darker and colder.

In 1974, the federal government temporarily made daylight saving time year-round in response to a severe energy crisis, and, Prerau said, it "proved to be very unpopular in the middle of the winter, because of the very dark mornings."

In Arizona, Harwood said his interest in time stems from his days as a B-52 navigator in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he had to tell pilots which direction to go, and how fast, to get them to a certain place by a certain time.

He first got involved in the issue of daylight saving time in 2015, when an Arizona lawmaker introduced a bill to adopt daylight saving time in the state. Harwood started a website, nodstforaz.com, and fought against the change. A week later, the lawmaker withdrew the bill, citing opposition.

Harwood started researching and was surprised to find a growing movement to stop changing the clocks. Harwood and Scott Yates, another activist who created a website that tracks the movement, say they don't care whether states abolish daylight saving time, or keep it year-round — they just don't think clocks should be changed twice a year.

In Massachusetts, a commission has been tasked with studying whether the state should stay on daylight saving time year-round. If the state made this change, it would move from Eastern time to the equivalent of Atlantic Standard Time, the zone to the east that includes Puerto Rico and Nova Scotia, essentially creating a fifth time zone in the continental United States.

For decades, the state has been changing its clocks with many people thinking there was a scientific reason for it, said Democratic state Sen. Eileen Donoghue, who is leading the commission. "The more you delve into it," she said, "the more you find — not so much." She said the commission is considering all potential effects of the change, including on the economy and public health.

Republican state Rep. Paul Frost, a member of the commission, is so far opposed to the idea. Adding another hour of darkness to winter mornings would mean young children are walking to school or to their bus stops in the dark, he said. "I'm deeply concerned over their safety."

But Frost said he is willing to support going on daylight saving time year-round if his concerns are addressed, and if Massachusetts makes the change in conjunction with other states.

States in the region are small and compact, he said, and people often work or travel across state lines. If Massachusetts is on a different schedule, he said, it will cause problems and confusion. He also pointed out that being on the same schedule as New York, and the stock market, is important for Massachusetts.

"I don't think we should do it willy-nilly," Frost said. "I think there are consequences. I want to make sure we are thoroughly discussing and reviewing it."

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said many retailers in the state also support the change, and want it to be made in conjunction with other states in the region. The retailers like the idea, he said, because the added daylight may encourage more shopping in the evenings.

Donoghue said she is hoping to work with other states to ask the federal government for the change. A bill was proposed in New Hampshire that says if Massachusetts goes on Atlantic time, New Hampshire will as well.

A similar effort is playing out on the other coast. Lawmakers in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington hope to pass bills that would collectively ask Congress to put those states on to what would be the equivalent of Mountain Standard Time, according to Washington state Sen. Jim Honeyford, a Republican. The states are currently on Pacific time, except for a portion of Idaho, which is already on Mountain time.

Honeyford said it may take a few years, but he thinks states have a better chance of getting approval from the federal government if they approach the issue together.




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Re: Tired of daylight saving time?

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Post by elvis4life »

https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/philadelphia/the-war-daylight-savings

The war on daylight savings

Befuddled and tired by shifting time zones? Some want to end this grand experiment.

Photo: ISTOCK

As everyone knows, it is no trifling affair to toy with time.

But that's just what the whole country did on Sunday, forcing its residents to set their clocks back one hour, as part of the tradition of "Daylight Savings Time."

And every year, twice a year, the nationwide time change causes a noticeable bump in traffic fatalities, workplace injuries, and heart attacks, according to experts, due to the alterations of sensitive internal rhythms and schedules.

“During those winter months, we have a lot of people who suffer seasonal affective disorder, and studies have shown that just giving that extra hour in the evening, as opposed to the morning, when people are sleeping, can make a difference in lowering the rates of seasonal affective disorder," Maine state rep. Donna Bailey, who proposed ending DST in her state, told the LA Times: http://beta.latimes.com/nation/la-na-time-change-20171031-story.html .

Originally conceived in the 1800s, purportedly to give farmers extra hours of daylight, DST was officially enacted nationwide in 1966.

It is actually liked by some people. They like to repeat "spring forward, fall back," and enjoy the illusion of getting one extra hour of sleep for the first week after the November shift back.

Others point out farmers would just wake up when the sun rose, and never actually supported or needed DST to "save" extra hours of daylight. But politicians apparently thought altering clocks would make them look like geniuses.

But if you're sick of having to reset your watch every six months, you are not alone. More and more people say they believe it is farcical for mankind to arbitrarily change the time of day twice a year. There are dozens of petitions on Change.org to end DST. The Standard Time movement also says DST is causing chaos and must be ended.

Unfortunately, no one is sure how to fix the mess. The #LockTheClock movement urges anyone with anti-DST leanings to contact their state and local legislators.

"Given the current situation in Washington, I don't think there's much we can do there," said LocktheClock organizer Scott Yates.

Yates said that DST can make you "cynical." It took effect in Europe weeks ago, but was delayed here in the US. Why? So candy companies can make more money at Halloween, Yates claimed.

"Lobbyists from the candy industry gave a basket of candy to members of Congress, and they extended DST until after Halloween for the safety of the children: (and so they would have more time for trick-or-treating," he wrote.

Politically, ending DST is a low priority, and its end is not likely anytime soon.

"Change is hard," Yates wrote. "It's coming, but it's going to take a while.

All states have the option to opt out of DST. Arizona and Hawaii are permanently on standard time. Large agricultural swathes of Indiana refuse to participate, proving the lie of the "helping farmers" justification.

In Massachusetts, a state commission investigating the idea of ending DST found: https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/boston/mass-should-not-go-time-zone-change-alone there would be "positive benefits" with making the November clock-change permanent, but stopped short of recommending permanently adopting standard time. Overall, they found adopting standard time would only be a net benefit if other Northeastern states followed the same path.

The Massachusetts panel also found standard time meant an economic benefit due to increased after-work daylight for people to go out, less detrimental health effects and benefits from more stable educational schedules. It could even "save energy, greenhouse gas emissions, reduce street crime and boost worker productivity," according to the report.

Massachusetts state Sen. Eileen Donoghue, chair of the Massachusett's "Special Commission on the Commonweatlth's Time Zone," told CBS News it is important to investigate DST, even if the odds are against any change: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/09/20/massachusetts-time-zone-change-panel-report-eileen-donahue/ .

"I think it's important that we not just throw up our hands and say, ‘We've always done it this way, we're going to keep doing it.' ... And though it's not easy and change doesn't come quickly, it's something that merits further discussion," she said.

But for now, you'll just have to get used to telling yourself that it actually is 9 in the morning, even though it may feel like 10. Nothing's changing here at the Metro office, where we'll just be pounding on our K-cup machine until the paper's done as always, regardless of whether its daylight or not.

By Sam Newhouse Published : November 06, 2017 | Updated : November 06, 2017




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Re: Tired of daylight saving time?

#1623364

Post by rlj4ep »

I have been over daylight savings time for years.




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Re: Tired of daylight saving time?

#1858372

Post by elvis4life »

https://ktla.com/news/california/debate-over-time-change-should-california-keep-daylight-saving-time-permanent-or-end-it-altogether/

Debate over time change: CA lawmakers mull options on keeping, ending daylight saving time

by: Tracy Bloom, Ashley Zavala

Posted: Nov 5, 2021 / 11:28 AM PDT / Updated: Nov 5, 2021 / 12:34 PM PDT

Three years after California voters approved a ballot initiative to take the first steps toward staying on daylight saving time the entire year, the state is preparing to “fall back” to standard time this weekend like nearly all of the U.S.

And as the debate over the seasonal time change continues, a state lawmaker says all options are still on the table in the California Legislature — even a possible move to year-round standard time.

“It comes down to something really simple, anyone can try it at home or ask their friends, ‘Do you want year-round daylight savings time or do you want to get rid of daylight savings time?'” said Asm. Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego.

Gonzalez is one of the co-sponsors of Proposition 7, which was passed in 2018 with the support of nearly 60% of voters.

The ballot measure effectively authorized the California Legislature to end the seasonal time changes with a two-thirds vote, providing they received the approval of the federal government.

But so far, efforts to pass legislation on the issue have stalled at both the state and federal levels. The delay has given each side of the time change debate to argue the merits of their position.

“You have sleep experts, we have some medical professionals who think we really need to go to standard time year-round,” Gonzalez said. “Then you have a lot of parents and people who like evening activities who really want daylight saving time year-round. … we haven’t been able to get legislators to agree on one or the other because there are these long-held preferences.”

Inaction by Congress, however, means California and other states looking to end the time change currently aren’t allowed to stay on daylight saving time throughout the year.

That’s due to the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which stipulates states can’t unilaterally act on DST without federal approval.

However, the law permits states to remain on daylight standard time year round, which is why Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t participate in the twice yearly clock changes.

“The only thing we could do immediately to change it is by two-thirds vote decide to go to standard time year-round,” Gonzalez said, adding, “I just haven’t seen us have the votes to do that.”

While many bemoan having to change all of their clocks twice a year, there still doesn’t appear to be a nationwide consensus on how to deal with the matter.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll: https://apnorc.org/projects/dislike-for-changing-the-clocks-persists/ released Friday demonstrated the divide, finding that the vast majority of respondents would like to see the time change ended. Of those polled, 43% said they wanted the U.S. to stay on standard time all year, compared to 32% who would prefer a permanent change to daylight saving.

Meanwhile, a quarter of respondents signaled that they don’t mind a mixture of both each year.

As the debate goes on, Californians are once again preparing to “fall back” this weekend after nearly eight months of daylight saving time.

Standard time will resume at 2 a.m. Sunday, meaning one more hour of daylight in the morning — but an earlier sunset each night.

https://www.deseret.com/2021/11/5/22764489/when-will-daylight-saving-time-become-america-standard-time-congress-rubio-stewart-utah-florida

The clock tower on the City-County Building is pictured in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Utah is among 19 states hoping Congress will let them change to permanent daylight saving time. Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Will daylight saving time eventually become America’s standard time?
For more than a century, the retail industry has championed daylight saving time and recent momentum to make it permanent has involved 19 states, including seven in the West

By Matthew Brown @mbrownreport Nov 5, 2021, 1:04pm MDT

Everyday people won’t be the only ones groaning this weekend when they show up for church services or other Sunday activities an hour early because they forgot to turn their clocks back. Some state and federal legislators will likely be shaking their heads in exasperation as well.

Almost 20 states, including seven in the West, have laws that would allow them to never have to turn their clocks back 60 minutes again. They just need Congress to give them the go ahead. But like many issues in Washington, two GOP-sponsored bills that would do just that are stuck and their prospects uncertain.

Since 2015, at least 350 bills and resolutions have been introduced in nearly every state over the country’s biannual changing of the clocks, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures: https://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/daylight-savings-time-state-legislation.aspx . But it was Florida that started a political movement by enacting legislation that would permanently observe daylight saving time in that state, pending a change in federal law. Some 18 states have since followed suit:

Alabama
Arkansas
California (voters authorized such a change in 2018, but legislative action is pending)
Delaware
Georgia,
Idaho,
Louisiana,
Maine,
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
Ohio (resolution)
Oregon
South Carolina
Tennessee
Utah
Washington
Wyoming
The only states that currently don’t switch to daylight saving time are Arizona and Hawaii.

In March, about the time daylight saving time began again this year, Republicans Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida introduced bills that would allow states to impose daylight saving time year round. A third bill that would do the same was introduced this month by Alabama GOP Rep. Mike Rogers.

Both Stewart and Rubio derided the biannual time change as antiquated and unnecessary federal overreach. The time switching became federal policy in 1966 under the Uniform Time Act, which allows states like Arizona and Hawaii to exempt themselves from daylight saving but doesn’t allow them to impose it permanently.



Gaining momentum

Despite both House and Senate bills being introduced by Republicans, changing clocks twice a year isn’t a partisan issue. The federal legislation has bipartisan support and six of the 19 states that have enacted laws to make daylight saving permanent are solidly blue.

Lawmakers spearheading and supporting efforts to end the decades-old practice of switching time twice a year appear to be following their constituents wishes, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“Opinions are mixed on the benefits of daylight time versus standard time, but the actual March and November time changes are almost universally reviled because of all the accompanying adjustments we must make, like coming home from work in the dark and the slower-than-expected resetting of our internal time clocks,” the conference concluded.

Daylight saving time was first imposed more than a century ago as an energy saving measure. In fact, the latest government tweak that extended the daylight saving to 8 months came in a 2005 energy bill, according to National Public Radio: https://www.npr.org/2021/11/01/1050492391/daylight-saving-time-history-what-you-need-to-know .

But critics say the savings from turning lights out have been overstated, particularly with other types of energy-saving innovations implemented since moving clocks ahead one hour for part of the year was first done in World War I in America and Europe.

The NPR article cited the late Michael Downing, a Tufts University professor who wrote “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time,”: https://michaeldowningbooks.com/books/spring-forward/ in explaining who has historically championed adding extra hours of daylight.

“What we don’t tend to know as Americans is that the biggest lobby on behalf of daylight saving since 1915 in this country — and to this very day — is the Chamber of Commerce,” Downing says in a 2015 video about daylight saving: https://now.tufts.edu/articles/ever-wonder-why-do-we-have-daylight-saving-time .

“When Congress held hearings on extending daylight saving time in the mid-1980s, officials from the golf industry said an ‘additional month of daylight saving was worth $200 million in additional sales of golf clubs and greens fees,’” Downing told NPR in 2007. “‘The barbecue industry said it was worth $100 million.’”: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7779869 .

With that kind of clout behind it, the momentum to shrink standard time from four months to none will likely build before it fades away.

But the medical community will remain the loyal opposition to imposing permanent daylight saving time, the Deseret News has reported. A recent episode of The New York Times podcast “The Argument” had experts citing studies showing that moving clocks ahead an hour has been tied to health risks ranging from auto fatalities to cancer: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/opinion/the-argument-daylight-saving-time.html .

What both sides seem to agree on is that the biannual time change is a bad idea. Less than half (70) of the world’s 195 countries observe daylight saving time, according to CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/world/daylight-saving-time-fast-facts/index.html . Time will tell if permanent daylight saving wins out to be the new standard time in the United States.




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Re: Tired of daylight saving time?

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Post by elvis4life »

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/

U.S. Senate approves bill to make daylight saving time permanent
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, ending the twice-annual changing of clocks in a move promoted by supporters advocating brighter afternoons and more economic activity.

The Senate approved the measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, unanimously by voice vote. The House of Representatives, which has held a committee hearing on the matter, still must pass the bill before it can go to President Joe Biden to sign. The White House has not said whether Biden supports it.

On Sunday, most of the United States resumed daylight saving time, moving ahead one hour. The United States will resume standard time in November.

Senator Marco Rubio, one of the bill's sponsors, said after input from airlines and broadcasters that supporters agreed that the change would not take place until November 2023.

The change would help enable children to play outdoors later and reduce seasonal depression, according to supporters.

"I know this is not the most important issue confronting America but it is one of those issues that there is a lot of agreement. ... If we can get this passed, we don't have to do this stupidity anymore," Rubio added. "Pardon the pun, but this is an idea whose time has come."

About 30 states since 2015 have introduced legislation to end the twice-yearly changing of clocks, with some states proposing to do it only if neighboring states do the same.

The House Energy and Commerce committee held a hearing on the issue this month. Representative Frank Pallone, the committee's chairman, said that "the loss of that one hour of sleep seems to impact us for days afterwards. It also can cause havoc on the sleeping patterns of our kids and our pets."

Pallone backs ending the clock switching but has not decided whether to support daylight or standard time as the permanent choice.

Pallone cited a 2019 poll that found that 71% of Americans prefer to no longer switch their clocks twice a year.

Supporters say the change could prevent a slight uptick in car crashes that typically occurs around the time changes and point to studies showing a small increase in the rate of heart attacks and strokes soon after the time change.

"It has real repercussions on our economy and our daily lives," said Senator Ed Markey, another leading sponsor.

Supporters argue it could help businesses such as golf courses that could draw more use with more evening daylight.

The use of daylight saving time has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s after being first tried in 1918. Year-round daylight savings time was adopted in 1973 in a bid to reduce energy use because of an oil embargo and repealed a year later.

The bill would allow Arizona and Hawaii, which do not observe daylight saving time, to remain on standard time.



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Re: Tired of daylight saving time?

#1878008

Post by BrianTCB »

I want the extra hour sleep/early darkness version. So this means I will lose my extra hour of sleep permanently?

Not happy about that.


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