Permanent DST? Be careful what you wish for -- March 17, 2022 column

By MARSHA MERCER 

Daylight saving time is having its, well, day in the sun. 

After “springing forward” Sunday, senators surprised everyone Tuesday by unanimously passing, on a voice vote, a bill to make daylight saving time permanent. 

That Republicans and Democrats actually agree on something reflects the rise of a grassroots issue. People hate having to reset their clocks twice a year, and nearly every state has addressed whether to make daylight saving time permanent. 

Eighteen states have approved the change since 2018, but they can’t take effect until federal law changes. 

The Senate bill would make daylight saving permanent unless a state chooses to remain on standard time year round. Only Hawaii and Arizona, except for the Navajo Nation, now keep standard time year round. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi favors permanent daylight saving time and President Joe Biden, as a senator, supported it. At a subcommittee hearing March 9, Rep. Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, called for a Department of Transportation study on the effects of a permanent change to daylight saving time. 

The study may slow momentum, but a switch to permanent daylight saving time seems on track. If the House agrees, we could stop changing our clocks in November 2023. 

But wait. We’ve been here before, and it wasn’t pretty. 

After the oil embargo of 1973, Americans were gung-ho for permanent daylight saving time as a way to save fuel. With 79% of Americans in favor, Congress passed a bill that President Richard Nixon signed, starting a trial of permanent daylight saving time in January 1974. 

 Then people started living with dark mornings. The sun did not rise in January in Virginia, for example, until about 8:24 a.m. 

 Children around the country were forced to wait in the dark for the school bus, and several died on their way to school. The fuel savings weren’t as much as expected. Public support plummeted below 50%, and Congress ended the experiment after six months. 

Today, our devices change the time for us, but what isn’t so easy is resetting our biological rhythm. Medical studies link the transition to daylight saving time to increased strokes, heart attacks and teen sleep deprivation. 

 But here’s the thing: The choice need not be either permanent daylight time or the status quo of changing clocks twice a year. There is a third option: keep standard time year round. 

Seven in 10 people want to stop changing clocks, but 40% favor year-round standard time while 31% favor year-round daylight saving time, according to a 2019 AP-NORC survey. 

Permanent standard – not saving -- time “aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety,” says the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, whose members include accredited sleep centers, physicians, scientists and other health professionals. 

The agriculture industry has opposed daylight saving time since it was first instituted during World War I. Farmers prefer to use the sun for their chores.

The nonpartisan Save Standard Time, whose members include medical, education and religious groups, also advocates for standard time year round. 

But the retail, golf and tourism industries are pushing for permanent daylight saving time. 

A bill to exempt Virginia from daylight saving time and keep standard time year around failed this year in the Virginia General Assembly. 

If the U.S. Senate bill were to become law, a crazy quilt of standard and daylight saving times, state by state, could result. 

Now is the time for people to speak up. 

“As we wait to see if/when this legislation is considered in the House, I want to know what you think,” U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, said Wednesday in an email. 

 Her survey asks whether to make daylight saving time permanent, keep the status quo (change time twice a year) or “Unsure/Other.” That third choice indicates the House is not seriously considering keeping standard time year round. 

What time do you want it to be? I asked a year ago in this space. 

Between permanent daylight saving time and the status quo, I still would pick the status quo. I can put up with changing clocks to see daylight on winter mornings. 

Better would be to make standard time permanent since it suits our natural world. 

 © 2022 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved. 30

What time do you want it to be? -- March 11, 2021 column

 By MARSHA MERCER

Daylight saving time is back.

We “spring forward” and turn our clocks ahead one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, losing an hour of sleep.

And at 2 a.m. on Nov. 7 we will “fall back,” set back the clocks and supposedly reclaim that lost hour. Or will we?

States can opt out of daylight saving time, but it would require an act of Congress to make daylight saving permanent. Now, a bipartisan group of senators wants to #locktheclock and do just that.

“The call to end the antiquated practice of clock changing is gaining momentum throughout the nation,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., chief sponsor of the so-called Sunshine Protection Act, said Tuesday in a statement.

It’s no secret people hate changing their clocks. Since 2015, at least 350 bills or resolutions have been introduced in virtually every state legislature to make permanent either standard time or daylight saving time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which said the biannual changing of the clocks raises “vexing and multifaceted state policy questions.”

Since the Florida legislature passed a law in 2018 for permanent daylight saving time, 15 other states have also passed laws, resolutions or voter initiatives backing permanent daylight saving. They are: Arkansas, Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

In Virginia, a bill to study the effects of daylight saving time died in committee last month, so there will be no change at least until next year’s session.

Seven in 10 Americans want to stop changing their clocks twice a year, an AP-NORC poll found in 2019. It’s disruptive of sleep, difficult for one’s biological rhythms to adjust to and makes life less safe, critics contend.

Among those who want to stop changing the time, 40% favored year-round standard time and 31% year-round daylight saving time, the poll reported.

Joining Rubio in reintroducing the Sunshine measure Tuesday were Sens. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma; Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, Rick Scott, R-Florida; and Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts.

Some senators want you to believe they are giving you an extra hour of sunshine. A summary of the bill, however, helpfully explains it does not change the amount of hours of sunlight.

Nor does the bill alter or change time zones or mandate the states and territories that do not observe daylight saving time do so. Hawaii, most of Arizona and the major U.S. territories do not change their clocks.

Benjamin Franklin floated the idea of daylight saving time in a humorous article in 1784. The United States first adopted daylight time during World War I, but it was unpopular. Congress ended it after the war. 

President Franklin Roosevelt restarted “War Time” in 1942 during World War II. When War Time ended in 1945, some states chose to start daylight saving in the summer.

Senators may want to be careful what they wish for. An emergency daylight saving time order in January 1974 during the OPEC oil crisis was supposed to last a year. It proved so unpopular when kids had to wait for the school bus in the dark of night, the edict was lifted.

Farmers, contrary to popular belief, hate daylight saving time, which upsets their schedules. They would rather let the sun and seasons dictate their work.

The Transportation Department, which oversees daylight saving time, says on its website daylight saving time can cut electricity use, save lives, prevent traffic injuries and reduce crime. Some studies dispute these findings.

Changing clocks is hard on people physically, with more people suffering heart attacks and strokes on days just after the spring time change, studies show. Heart attacks decline when we fall back.

Save Standard Time, a nonpartisan group, agrees we should stop changing our clocks twice a year but argues we go with permanent standard time. It blames “corporate lobbyists for special interests like Big Oil, Big Golf and Big Candy” for wanting to extend daylight time “and make its false clock permanent.”

Several organizations representing educators and sleep researchers as well as religious and medical groups have endorsed permanent standard time.

So, what time do you want it to be?

I don’t mind changing a few clocks twice a year, so the current system is OK with me. If we had to stick with just one year round, though, I’d go with standard time. Daylight saving is great in the spring and summer, but winter mornings are already dark enough.

Under permanent daylight time, sunrise in Virginia on Dec. 21, the Winter Solstice, wouldn’t come until about 8:20 a.m. No thanks.

©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

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