The U.S. Senate passed a bill on March 15 that would end the twice-yearly clock change to a “new, permanent standard time” meaning brighter winter evenings.
Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images
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Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. Senate passed a bill on March 15 that would end the twice-yearly clock change to a “new, permanent standard time” meaning brighter winter evenings.
Chris Delmas / AFP via Getty Images
The Senate patted itself on the back earlier this week when senators voted without objection make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
“The good news is that if we can get this through, we don’t have to keep doing this stupid thing,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said of his legislation to end the need for replacement. change the clocks every year in March. and November.
However, America has tried this before – and this country hates it. In the early 1970s, America was facing an energy crisis, so the government tried an experiment. Congress passed legislation making Daylight Saving Time permanent year-round, but only for two years. Thinking having more sunlight in the evening would reduce the nation’s energy consumption.
David Prerau, one of the nation’s leading experts on the matter, said it didn’t work out.
“It became unpopular very quickly,” he told NPR.
Americans don’t like to change their clocks, but they also don’t like going to work and school in the dark for months — the price the nation pays for more sunlight on a winter evening.
It also does not reduce energy consumption as intended. In 1974, Congress repealed the law – before the two-year trial was conducted. Nearly 50 years later, Congress has returned to it.
“Today the Senate finally delivered on what Americans across the country wanted: to never have to change their clocks again,” Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash, said on the Senate floor. .
“We know that Daylight Saving Time turns the corners of people’s mouths up into a smile!” Senator Edward Markey, D-Mass said.
Advocates for perpetual Daylight Saving Time include Steve Calandrillo, a professor at the University of Washington law school. He testified before a recent House subcommittee that it would do everything from save lives to reduce crime, save energy, improve health and boost the economy. His motto: “Darkness kills, sunshine saves.”
Dr. Beth Malow, a neurologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, also testified. She agrees that it is healthier for Americans to stop changing their clocks, but she thinks Permanent Standard Time is a better choice.
“It’s called Standard Time because ST fits into our natural, circadian rhythm,” she says. A fixed standard time with more sunny mornings and darker evenings is healthier, especially for frontline workers and school students with early wake times.
The best answer, according to Prerau, is to do nothing. The current system, which began in 2007 at the start of Daylight Saving Time in March and ends in November, is the product of decades of research and compromise.
“Personally, I think the current system we have, with some flaws, is the best we can have,” he said.
The House of Representatives has no immediate plans to pass the Senate-passed bill, but there is bipartisan support for the bill. The Biden administration has yet to take a position on the matter. “I don’t have a specific position from the administration at this time,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
History lesson here for Congress: Be careful what you vote on.
