Daylight Saving Time (DST) — the business where we “spring forward” the clocks by an hour in early March, then “fall back” an hour into Standard Time in November — was adopted in the US during World Wars I and II as an energy-conserving measure, although modern-day studies show the energy conserved is negligible. Even though DST was dropped between the wars, for some reason it stuck after WWII… and Americans have been hating it ever since! Pick a reason: it disrupts the delicate sleep cycle, it’s a hassle changing all the clocks, it’s a bitch for parents with young children, it’s too dark out when I wake up, it’s too dark out when I leave work! While we may luxuriate in that extra hour of sleep in November, the sense of injustice when we lose it come March is profound.
So a bipartisan effort to eliminate the twice-yearly clock changes has been making the rounds in Congress for years, mostly moving back and forth, much like the hour of time at issue. The Sunshine Protection Act (let’s call it SPA!) was passed unanimously by the Senate in 2022, but then votes were split on which time to make permanent: Saving or Standard. Cut to last week, when SPA was folded into another bill and passed 48-1 by a House committee. Unfortunately, you-know-who has taken up the cause, so he’s now a part of the story:
“Big Vote today (48-1!) in the Energy and Commerce Committee on a Bill including The Sunshine Protection Act, which will be making Daylight Saving Time Permanent! This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks. Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production. It will also be a very nice WIN for the Republican Party. Take it! We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”
…“The Sunshine Protection Act was included as a provision within an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (AINS) to the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act, which was marked up and sent to the House floor by the House Energy and Commerce Committee today, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly criticized changing clocks, but admitted in 2024 that agreement on which time to accept is difficult because “it’s a 50-50 issue.”
Some states don’t change their clocks at all: Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not observe Daylight Saving Time. They observe Standard Time year-round, while other states (including New York) spend half the year in Standard Time and the other half in DST.
The Sunshine Protection Act would make Daylight Saving Time permanent. It would not require states currently observing Standard Time to change to DST.
Daylight Saving Time was first established during World War I to conserve fuel for war industries. The law was repealed after WWI ended, but was re-established by Congress during World War II due to energy consumption and became U.S. law in 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act, establishing uniform start and end times within standard time zones. The policy, regulated by the Department of Transportation, aims to save energy, reduce traffic fatalities, and reduce crime.
Daylight Saving Time was kept after World War II because Americans were believed to use less energy by extending summer daylight into the evening. However, a 2008 Department of Energy study found that DST reduces annual energy use by just 0.03 percent, and another study by the University of California-Santa Barbara found DST might even increase energy consumption.
Some random questions/observations, in no particular order: If DST began and purportedly continued as an energy-saving measure, then why did it get bounced to the Department of Transportation’s purview, when surely the Dept of Energy was more appropriate? Transportation just sounds to me like they’re sending this one hour back and forth on an Amtrak train. Next, if SPA makes DST permanent, yet doesn’t require states in Standard Time to revert… how does that work? Also, this article doesn’t cover it, but it should be noted that most health experts strongly advocate for permanent Standard Time, not Daylight Saving. So, the opposite of what SPA would make law. Or as DT calls it, “Saving Daylight.” And speaking of, perhaps the most critical question is: does Trump realize that passing SPA won’t keep him from falling asleep in meetings? On camera?
PS — No, I will never NOT be Rattled by trump’s Indiscriminant AND Wanton use of capitalizations.
Photos credit: Viktoria B. on Pexels, Sarah Wüst on Unsplash
Pup side-eye at its finest. Perfect choice!
Wait until Trump decides to issue an Executive Order against gravity. Would we be surprised?
How much would this throw off our timing with the rest of the world?
It’ll simplify it.
Ok. So we made up our own time – for the war effort and energy conservation a century ago – and now we are deciding to stay on the time we made up. Forever.
So. A plane lands from Europe. And now they are on a different time zone but also on extra fake time because we aren’t synced to actual time?
Help! What??? Also I thought daylight savings was to help the farmers?!?
Planes have been landing in the US for 80 years without getting confused by the twice yearly change. Why would a permanent time system cause chaos?
I’m surprised that The Felon actually noticed the content of any current bill, what with his obsessive preoccupation with the illegal ballroom, the illegal forever Iran war, suing his own govt for billions, finding new laws and societal norms to break, targeting and punishing his enemies and anyone who disagrees with him, pardoning fraudsters, pedophiles and other dregs of society, and identifying new targets i.e. small defenseless countries to bomb and steal resources from. His overly inflated ego and bloodlust needs some type of win bc Israel keeps sabotaging proposed deals and Iran refuses to capitulate and surrender. He and his MAGA sycophantic morons a d cult followers are hell bent on destroying this country and are thus far, doing an excellent job at it.
Its about time Congress did something about DST. I doubt this Repub led Congress will listen to medical and mental health experts to decide which time to adopt. They will choose whichever one The Felon tells them to.
Ok wait. Now I’m kind of freaked out. How much of what we have experienced is artificial – it doesn’t actually stay light that long in the summer? Because we faked an hour ahead? The sudden reversal back an hour means that that SAD is probably way worse here? What the heck even ….
I live in the Pacific Northwest, far enough north that we’re nearly at 16 hours of daylight already for the spring/summer season.
It’s 6:30 am here now, and the sun has already been up for well over an hour. Conversely, in winter on standard time, we barely get 8 hours of daylight.
At the winter solstice, we get 8 and 1/2 hours between dawn and sunset, but our consistent cloud cover means we effectively get maybe 6 or 7 hours of daylight at best, for weeks on end.
So for us, the difference of an hour either way is mostly negligible.
The disruption of changing time twice a year is far worse than whether we see an hour more or less of sunlight at the beginning of the day.
I visited a friend n Seattle and after dinner we took her kid to the park, which was full of kids. I glanced at my watch feeling like it was early evening and it was 9pm!! I had no idea about the summer sun thing. Friggin crazy.
I’ve always been fascinated by the arbitrariness (?) of time. The fact that Bangor, Maine and Chicago have the same “high noon” is crazy. I researched this years ago and found that before the late 19th century, timekeeping was strictly local, with towns setting clocks to noon based on the sun. Funnily enough, it WAS the spread of trains that prompted the creation of time zones.
But, YES! — why they are choosing to keep DLS and not just keep “normal time”?
I live in northern Canada and we are on permanent DST. I’m just so pleased to be done with time changes- it is great! For us ( about the same latitude as Anchorage) winter is just dark but I like the bit of extra light at the end of the day. I think it really is a 50/50 choice! I hope the issue doesn’t get political as it’s better to eliminate the time change and personaly I don’t really think it matters if you go with ST or DST a
ITA. I don’t care which one. Just pick one. The older I get the harder the change is to adjust to. And it’s awful for the poor furbabies.
I don’t understand some of these comments. Planes will always know when to land just like they do now-because there are official times set. And that will stay true even if we’re on permanent DST. Our times are already arbitrary – time zones divide us so that some people living near each other have an hour difference in their time zones.
US Time zone weren’t created until 1966? That’s insane, had no idea it was a relatively modern thing.
There’s more heart attacks and car accidents when we change our clocks, so I would love for it to stop. Of course, Trump and the Republicans won’t listen to scientist when he comes to the changes that are best for a human beings.
Time zones were created in the 1800s. Day Light Savings Time was created in 1918: The United States officially adopted DST during World War I. It was repealed after the war, brought back for World War II, and then left up to individual states. In 1966, the U.S. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized DST start and end dates nationally. Still a state choice. Hawaii always stayed on one time. In Arizona, many Indian reservations wouldn’t change times, so driving around the state, you never knew what time it was. Finally they opted to forgo the change. Except in the Navaho Nation, where they do change the times.
Think of the pups!!
Arizona and Hawaii do not follow DST and they seem to do just fine.
Nooooo! Just make Standard Time official, not the fake DST. Ugh these people can’t stop messing with the natural world.
I love DST. I grew up in AZ where it didn’t change and didn’t really think about it except for the TV schedule changing (this was before streaming, we only got 5 channels, and they were California stations. I’m old). Then moved to California in the summer and LOVED how light it stayed here. I’m always so sad when Standard time comes around again.
Over the years I’ve realized a lot of people who say they hate DST actually hate Standard time, for some reason they haven’t figure out which is which.
We’re only on standard time four months out of the year. Our bodies are far more acclimated to daylight savings, which is 8 months of the year. My vote is for daylight, but truthfully they can make up a whole new time system and I’m down with if if we dump the time changes.