U.s. Set To Expand Daylight-saving Time

[Ishiyoshi]

The main arguments for Daylight-Saving Time are energy conservation and to certain extent: less crime and accidents. What are your views? ... Yea? Nay?

If you choose the latter... you may find this passage by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies to be amusing:

"I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind.... At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves."

The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday

--> read and discuss accordingly.

U.S. Set to Expand Daylight-Saving Time;

As Part of Energy Bill, Extra Hour of Evening Sun Would Run March-November

John J. Fialka. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jul 19, 2005. pg. D.1

AS A STEP TO save energy, Congress appears poised to extend U.S. daylight-saving time for two months, starting it earlier, on the first Sunday in March, and ending it later, on the last Sunday of November.

The move was first approved in May as part of the energy bill by the House. The idea has now been agreed upon by House and Senate committee staffs, with the approval of both Republican chairmen and ranking Democrats. That means it is likely to be approved by the full House- Senate conference committee, which begins squaring the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill this week.

Assuming the president signs the bill, the measure would take effect immediately, extending the current daylight-saving time by one month this fall.

Daylight-saving time, by requiring everyone to shift their clocks forward one hour, extends the hours of available daylight deeper into the evenings. Polls show that daylight-saving time is popular. And it has been a hallmark of summer nights, allowing families and businesses to extend their activities later -- with less need for artificial light. Currently, daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ends at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

"The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use," said Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), who co-sponsored the measure with Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.). The pair cited a government study that estimated the additional energy savings at the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil a day, or about half of 1% of the nation's daily oil consumption. Most of the energy saved, however, will be in the form of electricity because lights would be used less in the early evenings.

Daylight-saving time has had its critics. Some parent groups have been opposed to it because it can mean sending children to school when it is still dark.

And the change would throw U.S. international schedules further out of synchronization with Europe, where daylight-saving time starts on the last Sunday of March. The Air Transport Association, which represents major U.S. air carriers, says the move would cost the U.S. airline industry $147 million and cause "significant disruption" in overseas passenger travel.

According to the association, U.S. airlines risk losing "slots," or established landing times at major European airports if they can't maintain existing schedules.

Although the theory of daylight-saving dates back to Benjamin Franklin, it was first used by Germany and Austria in April 1916 to conserve energy during World War I. The U.S. adopted it in March 1918, but repealed it a year later because the measure wasn't popular with rural America. Daylight-saving time was readopted from 1942 to 1945 in the U.S., where it was call called "War Time." From then until 1966, when Congress attempted to standardized its use, some states used it and others didn't.

Parts of Indiana and Arizona still don't participate

[atrain]

i love daylight saving. in australia the majority of people who don't like daylight saving are against flouride too. for all i know they still think the earth is flat.

i guess it's not all good

http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/96/Nov/queensland.html

http://www.clown-ministry.com/Articles/fun...onist-time.html

if it means i can swim & drink on a weekend till the sungoes down at 8:30 i'm all for it.

[bland10000]

I'm for the double-dog daylight savings plan. Double-dog is where you push the clocks forward another hour at the end of June 'til first week-end in September.

[Citizen Snips]

Most of Indiana doesn't participate. Only those counties close to areas that do, like those near Kentucky, Ohio, and parts of Illinois, change over. Of course, all that's about to change, as our governor has already ordered the change. However, in making his request to the federal government, he did not specify which time zone Indiana wanted to be in.

I, for one, liked Indiana time - as it means only setting a clock once - but I can see why it was kooky.

[MDX-400]

This is an interesting topic. Time changes never really seemed like a big deal to me. I remember my dad once told me a story about how they tried just leaving the time as-is (and not changing it from standard) one year in England. Apparently there was a lot of backlash from farmers or something and therefore that "experiment" did not go too well--they went back to using DST.

DST makes things less depressing too I think, because there is "more" daylight things like SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) isn't a big issue. (Though one might argue SAD exists or is "enhanced" because of time changes I suppose; because if you didn't save daylight in summer then the lesser amount of daylight in the winter would not be as pronounced.)

The expansion of it in the US is an interesting idea, I wonder how well that will go over with people and if other countries (particularly Canada) would follow suit?

[Syrius]

F*** NO! One of the reasons Az doesn't go into that it's because there just too much light to go to bed and fall asleep, and it's too damn hot. I think it's going to wreak havok in most people's internal clocks. Gee, why not make DST a year round thing? No, wait, let's make it so that the US is always facing the Sun, that way we won't need to turn another light on.

There's only so much the body can take.

[yamagatacamille]

Daylight-Saving Time?! Lousy Farmers.

heh in all seriousness, i dont see why it needs to be changed -- as Roland said if the bill gets passed will Canada have the same DST date? if it aint broke, dont fix it. it will take many a year for people to re-adjust to the new DST date if it gets passed