Is Sunday Going to Be Daylight Saving Time's Swan Song?

[Geee]

PJ Media

On Sunday, March 13 at 2 a.m., we’re supposed to move our clocks ahead an hour (“spring forward”). And for the next 34 weeks, we can luxuriate in an extra hour of sunlight. That’s an extra hour of shopping, merrymaking, and other activities during which Americans are sure to spend a lot of money.

Recent polls show that 63% of Americans want to get rid of altering the clock altogether and maintain daylight saving time year-round.

As of now, 18 states have passed laws or resolutions making daylight saving time permanent, and there are currently 28 states considering the change. But while states can adopt standard time year-round, there would need to be changes by the federal government in order for states to adopt daylight saving time.

Fox Business News:

A bipartisan group of senators, including Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.), reintroduced legislation in March 2021 to make daylight-saving time the year-round standard. The legislation would allow similar laws passed in states including Florida, Georgia, Delaware, Oregon and Louisiana to take effect. But the bill hasn’t made much progress in the past year.

“Switching in and out of daylight-saving time is outdated,” Mr. Rubio said in a video message Thursday, renewing calls for action. “Let’s just lock the clock once and for all and put all this stupidity behind us.”

The reason for the changing clock has lost its significance. Studies have shown that there is little in the way of energy savings from flipping the clock, nor is there a bump in economic activity. The statistical quirk of the increased number of cardiac incidents may have other explanations that don’t have anything to do with the time.

[SDwaters]

We can only hope!

[MISBAILEY]

Why can't we just go back to standard time....give up the illusion of control. 

[Valin]

@Geee , @SDwaters, @MISBAILEY

Anyone else recall what happened the last time getting rid of Daylight savings time? It was in the sprig of 1974(?). Do the words Fluster Cluck ring a bell? No one liked it.

[MISBAILEY]

Actually, I don't mind it..... I just don't care for the extended version.

[Geee]

[Valin]

Lest We Forget

The US Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time in the ’70s. People Hated It

Andrew Beaujon

March 15, 2022

A January 8, 1974, article in the Washington Post.

The sun rose at 8:27 AM on January 7, 1974. Children in the Washington area had left for school in the dark that morning, thanks to a new national experiment during a wrenching energy crisis: most of the US went to year-round daylight saving time beginning on January 6. “It was jet black” outside when her daughter was supposed to leave for school, Florence Bauer of Springfield told the Washington Post. “Some of the children took flashlights with them.”

The change would benefit Americans in the long run, predicted Steve Grossman of the Department of Transportation. Yes, accidents in the morning darkness may become more common, he said, but longer daylight hours could mean eliminating the hazards of evening commutes: “stress, anxiety, and many drivers have had a couple of drinks,” as he told the Post.  Outside the capital, others vowed defiance: Robert Yost, the mayor of St. Francis, Kansas said his town’s council “felt it was time to put our foot down and stop this monkey business.”

Now as the idea of permanent daylight saving time has gained some political momentum, it’s probably worth a look back to another period when the US tinkered with time.

(Snip)

By August, though, as the Watergate scandal caused the Nixon administration to crumble, the country was ready to move on from its clock experiments. While 79 percent of Americans approved of the change in December 1973, approval had dropped to 42 percent three months later, the New York Times reported. Seven days after President Nixon resigned, US Senator Bob Dole of Kansas introduced an amendment in August that would end the DST experiment. It passed. A similar bill passed the House. In late September, the full Congress passed a bill that would restore standard time on October 27. President Ford signed it on October 5. Energy savings, a House panel noted, “must be balanced against a majority of the public’s distaste for the observance of Daylight Saving Time.”