When the U.S. Senate passed a bill last week, by a unanimous voice vote, to keep America’s clocks sprung forward by an hour on Daylight Saving Time, it marked a surprising consensus. But now that the bill is in the House of Representatives, other opinions are starting to surface.
The chairman of the House committee that will consider the bill says it could be a while before Democratic leaders take it up. Or, as The Washington Post cleverly put it, “The House is set to hit the snooze button on the Senate’s plan to permanently change the nation’s clocks.”
Although last week’s stories provided good reasons to keep clocks an hour ahead year-round, more recent reports offer equally good points for earlier winter sunrises — and the earlier sunsets that arrive when the time falls back in November.
The Post included a map of the United States that showed, if Daylight Saving Time became permanent, when the sun would come up on the winter day with the latest sunrise, which is in early January. It’s only one day, but sunrise in huge sections of the country would be between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m.
Mississippi fares well no matter which time gets used. If Congress votes to stop moving clocks back in November and thus eliminates Daylight Standard Time, the sun will rise in the eastern third of the state between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Sunup in the rest of the state, including Greenwood, would be a few minutes after 8 a.m.
Alabama, because it is on the southeastern edge of the Central Time Zone, would be the big winner in getting rid of the November time change: Sunrise across the entire state still would be before 8 a.m., as it would be in southeastern Louisiana, including New Orleans.
Other discussion points that have come up since the Senate vote:
nSome doctors believe that sticking with Daylight Standard Time year-round, with its earlier sunrise and sunset, would be a healthier option because it is better aligned with the natural rhythms of the human body. (In Mississippi and Louisiana, this would mean summer sunrises at 5 a.m. and sunsets at 7 p.m., so — no.)
nThe Post said the chairman of the House committee that has the bill wants to complete an analysis on how time changes affect traffic, work productivity, energy costs and other issues.
nThe government set up a two-year experiment with year-round Daylight Saving Time in 1973 and 1974. The idea was to save energy during the Arab oil embargo. It turned out to be so unpopular, in part due to schoolchildren having to board buses in the dark, that in September 1974 Congress went back to two time changes per year.
The obvious problem is there’s just not a whole lot of daylight during the winter. Most places can get a reasonable sunrise time or a reasonable sunset time — but not both.
If the House isn’t ready for year-round Daylight Saving Time, it can leave things as is and deal with the periodic time change grumbling. Other options include shortening the earlier winter sunset season to two months instead of the current four, or moving the clocks back half an hour instead of a full 60 minutes.
